


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap .jSS Copyright No. 

Shelfj£ 1.JJ Ci 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






THE CRUC1ALTEST 


BY 

MAY C. FIRESTONE 

H 


"For a’ that, and a’ that, 

'Tis cornin’ yet, for a’ that, 
That men to men shall brothers be 
The world o’er, for a’ that." 

—Burns 


PUBLISHED BY THE 

A. LINCOLN FIRESTONE CO. 

Chicago 

L , 


c 


atCOfID COPY. 


45125 

Copyright, 1899, by. 
MAY C. FIRESTONE 
Chicago. 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 






* 


“Trust in God and try to do good.” 

— Harriet Beecher Stowe. 


TO THE AMERICAN FEDERATION 
OF WOMEN’S CLUBS WHO ARE 
INTERESTED IN THE SOLUTION 
OF OUR INDUSTRIAL QUESTION 


POVERTY AND CRIME. 

“Had poor folks half they need, and pleasure 
Of life in reasonable measure, 

But food and raiment, few of all 
Would sin or fall.” 

— Thomas Ashe. 

( Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1897.) 


























































* 












































PREFACE. 


The Crucial Test is written to influence the pro- 
fessional men, the business men, the farmers and the 
workingmen to stand for the rights of humanity, an 
honest government and to maintain Americanism, as 
enunciated by Dr. Gunsaulus at the Chicago Univer- 
sity, July 4, 1899, who, in explaining the five princi- 
ples of Americanism, said : “Let me mention as the 
first the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of 
Man. Tell me what a man prays to and I will tell you 
what he is. If he prays to a spirit of anarchy he is a 
law-breaker ; if he prays to a God of brute force he is 
of the lower development. 

“The next principle is a new concept of liberty. 
Christ was the greatest statesman, and the Lord’s 
Prayer is a treatise on political economy. Until this 
principle is diffused throughout the world revolutions 
will continue. Lastly, we recognize the principle that 
there is an absolute equality of men under God. 
Americanism was born on Calvary, when Jesus 
dropped precious blood and drew all men unto him.” 

The basis of the solution for problems confronting 
us, proposed in Chapter XIII of this book, is advo- 

5 


6 


preface. 


cated by Dr. Frank Crane of Trinity Methodist 
Church, Chicago, in a pulpit editorial published in the 
“Chicago Record” of March 27, 1899. Dr. Crane says : 
“The only possible way to make the individual take 
hold of politics is to make politics take hold of him. 
All the corruption of politics arises from and is founded 
upon the indifference of the average citizen. To claim 
that politics is too evil to be entrusted with larger 
duties is to argue in a circle. It is evil simply because 
its duties are so narrow as to appeal directly to the 
personal interest of only a small class of citizens.” 

In an editorial, July 11, 1899, headed “Dr. Rogers 
on Civic Duties,” the “Chicago Tribune” says: 
“Though President Henry Wade Rogers of North- 
western University did not call his Sunday discourse 
at Trinity Methodist Church a sermon, it contained 
some political and moral truths of more value than 
many a doctrinal sermon. While he believes that the 
uplifting force in our government must come from 
the educated men, he refuses to lay the blame for our 
governmental errors upon the slums and those that 
dwell therein. It would be a blessing if all educated 
men could be roused to take part in municipal and 
national reforms and to act upon Dr. Rogers’ ideas.” 

In an article on “The Misgovernment of the Mod- 
ern City,” in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening 
Post, Mayor Harrison explains the causes of the 
political evils which confront us: “Public apathy, cor- 


PREFACE. 


7 


rupt city legislators, prejudiced legislators from the 
country and bribe-giving corporations.” The practical 
solution for these questions suggested by Chicago’s 
chief executive is “to educate the masses to understand 
existing laws, to influence all to take a deep concern 
in the acts of legislatures, common councils, public 
officials, and to attend the primaries with the same 
fidelity as the polls.” 

Mr. Henry Davies of Yale University, in an article 
on “University Settlements and the Social Question,” 
says : “The keenest observers of things social are 
rapidly coming to the view that social reorganization 
needs the religious inspiration ; that discontent is but 
the natural reaction against materialism, and that the 
newer synthesis into which we are coming must se- 
cure, for basis, the life that is built on faith and service. 

“It is by cultivating the broadest sympathy with the 
new methods whereby the spirit of man is seeking 
self-realization that our own life grows more rich and 
true-seeing. Society is still an Inferno, but every clear 
voice of poet, philosopher and prophet bids us look 
ahead, not back, to the ‘life the undiminished man 
demands.’ It is only of the future that we can say in 
the glowing words of Lowell : 

“What man would live coffined with brick and stone, 
Imprisoned from the influence of air, 

And cramped with selfish landmarks everywhere, 

When all before him stretches, furrowless and lone, 

The unmapped prairie none can fence or own?” 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PAGE. 

Chapter I. Tennessee 

" II. Marcella 17 

" III. Nashville 23 

“ IV. Beechcroft 35 

*' V. New Orleans 45 

" VI. » Maryland 62 

“ VII. Detroit 73 

“ VIII. Omaha 91 

IX. World’s Fair 101 

“ X. Des Moines 117 

“ XI. Chicago 137 

" XII. Columbiana County, Ohio 144 

“ XIII. Boston 159 

“ XIV. Toledo 185 

" XV. Louisville 202 

Address — T he Views of the Present Gener- 
ation on the Solution of the Questions Con- 
fronting Us 215 


8 


CHAPTER I. 


TENNESSEE. 

“Her air, her manner, all who saw admired; 

Courteous, though coy, and gentle, though retired; 

The ioy of youth and health her eyes displayed, 

And ease of heart her every look conveyed.” 

— Crabbe. 

Nestled amid the hills of Middle Tennessee is a 
dreamy little town, typically southern, called New 
Springfield. It is surrounded by beautifully cultivated 
plantations, whose owners possess all the old-time 
southern hospitality. Local history tells us that 
the residents of the town had a “misunderstand- 
ing” with the builders of the Louisville & Nash- 
ville Railroad about right-of-way or the measure of 
help that should be extended to the enterprise. As 
an agreement could not be reached the road was made 
to pass through the country two miles south of the 
town, cutting through the fertile acres of the well- 
known Ewell Stock Farm. 

This latter consisted of 5,000 acres of land, within 
which were included the varying characteristics of the 
topography of this section of Tennessee. Near the 
picturesque entrance to this hospitable home was lo- 
cated Ewell Station. About the occupants of Ewell 

9 


10 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Farm was a halo of romance that tended to increase 
the widespread admiration for them which was pri- 
marily justified by their boundless hospitality, and the 
interest they manifested in the well-being of all who 
came within reach of their ministrations. 

When a young lady, the daughter of Judge Camp- 
bell, one of Tennessee’s most noted statesmen, who 
was chosen by President Monroe to represent this 
country at the court of the Czar, was affianced to Rich- 
ard Stoddard Ewell. The latter was a warm-hearted 
southerner who had been graduated from the United 
States military academy at West Point, and held a 
commission in the army as lieutenant of dragoons. 
Ewell was breveted captain, for gallant and meritorious 
conduct in the Mexican War. Captain Ewell and Miss 
Campbell were cousins, and though deeply attached to 
each other, through fear of inimical results from a too 
closely consanguineous alliance, the engagement was 
broken off. Captain Ewell, seeking to mitigate the 
pain incident to separation from one so dear to him, 
resigned from the army and went to Europe, where he 
remained until recalled by the clarion of war. 

He tendered his sword to the Confederacy, and for 
bravery and gallantry of action General Ewell stood 
with those interesting soldier characters, Generals 
Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson. 

In course of time Miss Campbell became the wife 
of Mr. Brown, a wealthy planter, who, after a few years 


TTTE CRUCrAL TEST. 


if 


of wedded life, died, leaving his widow and two chil- 
dren a vast fortune. Mrs. Brown was gifted with un- 
usual business capacity and was devotedly attached to 
the cause of her people. She gave a large portion of 
her fortune to the Confederacy and equipped a regi- 
ment for her only son, Major Campbell Brown. . But 
this was not the limit to which the spirit of patriotism 
carried her. The sufferings of the wounded who had 
bared their breasts in defense of the cause she loved so 
well appealed to her sympathies' and she went into 
the southern hospitals as a nurse. 

General Ewell, with Generals Lee and Longstreet, 
commanded the divisions of Lee’s invading army. 

In action, before the battle of Gettysburg and dur- 
ing that memorable conflict, the division of the Con- 
federate army commanded by General Ewell took the 
most active part in the terrible struggle which was the 
decisive action of the war. In the main battle of 
Gettysburg General Ewell was grievously wounded. 
In the hospital at Richmond he was nursed by his 
former sweetheart, Mrs. Brown, and when he had suffi- 
ciently recovered his health they were married. 

When hostilities were over General and Mrs. Ewell 
returned to Tennessee to take up the burden of rescu- 
ing the remnant of their property from the ravages of 
war. This they set about doing with the same forti- 
tude that both had previously manifested, the one in 
the forefront of battle and the other in the hospital 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


I'l 

ward. Their efforts were successful in making their 
estate one of the most prosperous and their home one 
of the most interesting and inviting in the entire 
South. 

Half way along the charming country road that con- 
nects Ewell Station with New Springfield was located 
Beechcroft School. It occupied an old southern resi- 
dence, remodeled, and to reach its main portal one 
passed, by a broad avenue, through a dense grove of 
magnificent beech trees. 

On a particular November afternoon a company of 
happy girls from Beechcroft School had gathered at 
the station and were awaiting a belated train that was 
to bear them, with scores of other joyous southerners, 
to Nashville, to participate in a ratification of the first 
president of their own political faith who had achieved 
success at the polls since the terrible ordeal of the 
Civil War. In this group of girls was one who was 
particularly noticeable. She was tall and lithe, with 
that in her movements to indicate a superabundance 
of nerve force. She was fair, with a complexion sug- 
gesting the bloom of youth. The shapely head was 
crowned with golden hair and the regular features of 
the face were lighted up with large, earnest blue eyes. 
While seemingly imbued with the warmth of the 
southerner, this young girl was of a mold distinct from 
her companions. This was explained when a young 
gentleman, who was in charge of a party from Ewell 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


13 


Farm, who were to participate in the Democratic re- 
joicing at Nashville, came up to the group of girls 
and said to one of them, Rebecca Nicholson : 

“Miss Rebecca, pardon me, but you have a stranger 
in your party — ‘a star-eyed goddess' — if I may be per- 
mitted to so call her. May I not know her ?” 

“Assuredly, and why not? And you want my as- 
sistance ?” 

“I knew in advance that I might count upon that,” 
was Mr. Polk’s reply. 

“But we are all ‘star-eyed goddesses,’ ” said Re- 
becca, “or if we are not it would be unkind to cause 
us to think otherwise.” 

“Your claim is indisputable, Miss Rebecca, and 
your merit — ” 

“Oh, forbear, do, please. I know whom you mean 
and will comply with your request.” 

Approaching the group, Marcella was singled out 
and the formalities of an introduction were gone 
through with, Rebecca saying in conclusion : “Miss 
Allen is a resident of Chicago, and is the first north- 
erner to commit herself to the tender mercies of Beech- 
croft.” 

“I trust there may be no limit to the mercies,” said 
Mr. Polk, addressing Marcella, “and I scarcely think 
you need the assurance that you are among friends. 
As a preliminary to our better acquaintance, I pre- 
sume I ought to ask you how you are impressed with 
the South?” 


H 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


“I can say, without mental reservation of any sort, 
that I am charmed with the South, and, to the limit 
of my experience, have nothing but words of praise.” 

“Well, I’m glad of that. We like to impress people 
pleasantly.” 

I conclude from the fact of your being where you 
now are, that you are going to Nashville to rejoice 
with us. Am I correct?” 

“In the main, yes,” responded Marcella. “You are 
a Democrat, of course, Mr. Polk?” 

“Yes, I am a Democrat, but not of the school 
that holds to the opinion that whatever is indorsed 
by a democratic convention is right, and that 
whatever is indorsed by the opposition is everlastingly 
and eternally wrong, though I confess the school I re- 
fer to is numerically strong and, I presume, eminently 
respectable. I am a partisan, but not a gudgeon.” 

“And what is a gudgeon, pray tell?” 

“Well, to be candid with you, I don’t know, beyond 
the fact that it is a fish, so careless of its future pros- 
pects that it will greedily absorb almost any bait that is 
thrown to it. The sea of politics is alive with these 
fishes, only valuable when they happen to rise to the 
lure of someone who is superior to partisan aims.” 

“That is a sad reflection upon American citizen- 
ship,” said Marcella, but I assume it is correct. Still 
the schoolmaster is very much abroad in this land of 
ours; the modern printing press is doing wonders in 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


15 


the way of sharpening the wits of the people, and in 
due course we will become a nation of thinkers, able 
to weigh theories of government in the balance, and 
act upon our own conceptions of what is best.” 

“That is as it should be, of course, and I trust your 
high hopes may find fruition in the years to come. 
The election of Mr. Cleveland justifies hope, for I think 
it shows the disintegration of blind partisanship. He 
gave evidence of strength as governor of New York, 
and I believe as chief executive of the nation will rend 
the shackles of party, to the extent at least of relegat- 
ing the mere partisan politician to his proper place, 
which is nowhere.” 

“The unfortunate utterance of the Reverend Doctor 
Burchard in the speech of welcome to Mr. Blaine, 
in New York, will assist in ringing the death knell to a 
period of narrow prejudice.” 

“That remark was unfortunate for Mr. Blaine,” 
said Marcella ; “he did not hear the fateful 
words, 'Rum, Romanism and Rebellion,’ his mind 
was occupied with other matters. He supposed 
Dr. Burchard was making only an ordinary address 
of welcome.” 

“But who will undertake to measure the ways of 
Providence? As a nation we have progressed so rap- 
idly and attained such brilliant achievements, that a 
character with Mr. Cleveland’s firmness will tend to 
steady us, as we approach the closing decade of the 


i6 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


nineteenth century, during which so many kaleido- 
scopic changes have occurred/’ 

The whistle of the belated train that was to bear 
them to Nashville here cut short the discussion be- 
tween Marcella and her new acquaintance. As Mr. 
Polk took his departure to rejoin his friends, he said to 
Marcella that he was glad to have found in their 
midst a northerner who could rejoice with them and 
was to bear them company to Tennessee’s capital, 
there to participate in the first democratic presidential 
ratification that has occurred in that city since the time 
when marshaled hosts in Federal uniforms tramped 
the streets of Tennessee’s capital. 


CHAPTER II. 
MARCELLA. 


“Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 

Like a swift fleeting meteor, a fast flying cloud, 

A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 

Man passes from life to his rest in the grave.’’ 

— Lincoln’s Favorite Poem. 

The air was fragrant with the perfume of flowers, 
which, responsive to the ardor of the May sun, were 
in bloom, this early June morning. Within a small 
gothic house of prayer, beautifully decorated with a 
wealth of lilies, ferns and palms, friends awaited ex- 
pectantly the appearance of the bride, she whose future 
was to be entrusted to the loving care of another and 
with whom her fate was to be bound up by the closest 
tie known to human life. Presently, as the organ 
pealed forth the joyous notes of Mendelssohn’s Wed- 
ding March, an elderly gentleman of commanding ap- 
pearance came in and upon his arm leaned a young 
girl, clad in white silk, with bridal veil held by orange 
blossoms, a bride as fair as the lilies which beautified 
her surroundings, on this eventful morn. Her favo- 
rite sister Doley was escorted by a fine-looking young 
man, he who was to assume the responsibility of car- 
ing for this young bride. Upon the completion of the 
ceremony, amid the congratulations of friends, 
EJla Winship, who had become Mrs. Johnston Allen, 

17 


2 


1 8 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

returned with the bridal party to the home of her 
father, which stood facing the comparatively empty 
campus of the now famous University of Michigan, in 
the town which nature had been so prodigal with, in 
the matter of natural advantages. 

While completing his course in law at Ann Arbor 
Mr. Allen had won the affections of one of the town’s 
most charming daughters, and now he had returned to 
claim her as his bride. Following the wedding was 
the bridal tour, and after a few pleasant months spent 
in California and the West the happy husband brought 
his bride to his quaint, old-fashioned home in Ohio, 
cozily nestled amid the hills of Columbiana County, 
with an outlook at one side over the beautiful scenery 
that makes this section of Ohio so attractive, and on 
the other showing a sweep of the world’s most trav- 
eled highway, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Here, with 
naught to disturb the quiet of nature, a delicate little 
girl made her advent into the world, apparently with 
every assurance that the sunshine of heaven would 
long lighten her pathway through life. But with this 
little one, as with so many others who traverse this 
world of ours, which at best is but a vale of tears, af- 
flictions came early, long before she could realize the 
weight of the hand that had been laid upon her. When 
she was but three months of age, God, in his inscruta- 
ble wisdom, saw fit to take her mother to Himself. 
The bereaved father followed the remains of his loved 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


19 


one up the winding road to her last resting place in 
the cemetery of New Waterford, and who could blame 
him if he bitterly questioned the decree that had made 
his life, but a few short months before so full of happi- 
ness, so wretched? 

On account of the mother’s delicate health, the lit- 
tle girl had remained nameless, so the father supplied 
the omission by calling this mite of humanity, who was 
to sail out upon life’s tempestuous waters without the 
guidance of a mother, Marcella. Mr. Allen had ac- 
quired landed interests in Iowa, that demanded his at- 
tention, and to give them the attention they required 
was a relief, taking him, as it did, out of himself and 
away from thoughts and surroundings that unfitted 
him for a continuance of the battle of life. He loved 
his little daughter dearly, though she was the guiltless 
and unconscious cause of his misery, but it was not 
possible for him to have her with him, when resum- 
ing the duties of an active business life : therefore, upon 
his departure for the West, Marcella was left at the 
Allen homestead, where she had been born, under the 
care of her Aunt Doley, her mother’s sister. Here the 
earlier years of her life were spent, and in her semi- 
loneliness — for she was without a mother, whose place 
no one else could fill — imbibed ideas that were to in- 
fluence her to devote her energies to an effort to help 
others. She led a dreamy life, communing with 
nature, and absorbed notions that, while not impairing 


20 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


a naturally joyous temperament, relieved her of the im- 
pulsiveness common to childhood. She was fond of 
animal life and lavished her young affections upon all 
who suffered, and were oppressed, and those whose 
environments invited pity. 

Her aunt, when Marcella was ten years of age, be- 
came the wife of a distinguished officer of the United 
States army, having headquarters at Chicago, and as 
Mr. Allen, Marcella’s father, with his varied interests 
in the West, was unable to give his daughter the home 
and surroundings her tender years required, he w as glad 
to avail himself of the proposition of the aunt, within 
whose affections Marcella had made for herself a 
warm place, which was that the child should accom- 
pany her to Chicago. In this wise Marcella became a 
resident of Fort Sheridan, which is a military post con- 
tiguous to the westerti metropolis. In her occasional 
visits to the large city she caught a glimpse of some of 
the miseries that infest vast communities of people 
closely assembled. She got something of an idea of 
the fruitless struggle that was going on among the 
masses to escape the ever-present misery of hunger. 
She saw the pinched and hungry looks of countless 
ill-clad children, and within her breast the thought 
took root that the evil was of man’s devising, for she 
never doubted God’s love for His children. 

She was a strange child, in that she developed an 
active interest in matters not usually absorbed by the 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


21 


youthful mind. She acquainted herself with prevail- 
ing political thought, which incited her to a study of 
the nation’s history, and through the kindness of her 
uncle, who was disposed to look upon her as a unique 
sort of person, she was permitted to accompany him 
to the national Republican and Democratic conven- 
tions that were held in Chicago in 1884. Marcella took 
great interest in the characteristics of the two famous 
Americans who were chosen to head the rival tickets — 
Blaine, the magnetic, who later asked that a tree that 
had been shattered by lightning, might mark his last 
resting place, as significant of his wrecked life, and 
Cleveland, the sturdy, for whom fate destined such wise 
achievements, who steered the ship of state with wis- 
dom, despite the rocks and shoals of our rapidly de- 
veloping nation, who displayed the indomitable cour- 
age of a Jefferson and the iron will of a Jackson, and 
who will grow in honor and in the love of his fellow 
countrymen with the growth of years. 

The demands of the service made it necessary for 
Marcella’s uncle to remove to Fort Whipple, Prescott, 
Arizona. Captain Turtle was to be accompanied 
by his wife, so it was suggested to the father 
that Marcella, who by this time had developed 
into a strikingly attractive young woman and was in 
need of the companionship of those more nearly her 
own age, from which she had been debarred by cir- 
cumstances, be permitted to attend a private school in 


22 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Tennessee, with the principal of which her Aunt Doley 
was intimately acquainted, the two having been pupils 
together at Georgetown Convent, Washington. Mr. 
Allen being nothing averse, Marcella became enrolled 
as a scholar at Beechcroft School, New Springfield, 
Tenn. 


CHAPTER III. 


NASHVILLE. 

“Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” 

— Daniel Webster. 

The dim-burning lamps and the dull rumble of the 
train were having a soporific effect upon the company 
of excursionists who were returning to their homes 
from Nashville after having participated in the Demo- 
cratic ratification ceremonies there. There had been 
boundless enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is wearing. 
For any mental exuberance, there must be physical 
compensation, not differing materially from the com- 
pensation demanded by nature for an expenditure of 
muscular force. Fatigue results from either and re- 
cuperation comes only with rest. 

In the main it was a somnolent crowd. Marcella 
was seated with her friend Rebecca, and, having ex- 
hausted as a topic of conversation the experiences of 
the evening at the capital city, they were anticipating 
the school duties of the ensuing Monday, and Rebecca 
was wondering whether it would not have been as well 
to have foregone the fatigues of sight-seeing and ap- 
plied themselves to the absorption of the knowledge 
that is contained in school books. 

While thus engaged, Mr. Polk, who had been else- 
where in the train, made his appearance. He said to 
23 


24 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


the two young ladies: “Someone, who spoke as 
though he knew what he was talking about, has said 
that apples contain phosphate, hence are excellent food 
for the brain. I have enlisted the services of the train 
boy, with his apple basket, and I invite you to discuss 
its contents.” Marcella and Rebecca availed them- 
selves of the opportunity offered and warmly thanked 
Mr. Polk for his thoughtfulness. The latter said: “By 
the way, Miss Marcella, let me ask you, as a north- 
erner, what you think of the way the Democrats of 
Nashville gave vent to their enthusiasm over the elec- 
tion of our new president? I hope you both enjoyed 
the ratification ceremonies?” 

“To be frank with you,” said Rebecca, “I did not 
see much to enjoy, for we reached the city so late. 
Marcella was so quiet that I presume she felt as I did, 
that we would have been more comfortable if we had 
remained at home and given needed attention to our 
lessons for next Monday.” 

“You shall not speak for me, Rebecca,” said Mar- 
cella, “for what you have said does not outline my 
feelings. I was quiet because I was much impressed 
by the first sight that greeted my eyes upon the streets 
of Nashville, the sentiment, in huge letters upon the 
floats, ‘No North, no South, no East, no West.’ I 
feel rather ashamed to have to admit that the senti- 
ment in the North is not so broad, and very many of 
our politicians feel impelled to dilate upon ‘the solid 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


^5 


South.’ The influences of my life have led me to be- 
lieve in the Republican party, but I love our whole 
country so well that I am glad a Democratic president 
has been elected, since the southerners, in their hour 
of victory, avail themselves of the opportunity to give 
expression to such generous sentiments. In the North 
I have heard it declared that the election of a Demo- 
cratic president would precipitate another armed con- 
flict between the sections, whereas, in the South I find 
that it only calls forth the strongest sentiments ofdoy- 
alty to the Union.” 

“I am deeply pleased to have a northerner find by 
actual observation that the South accepts the results 
of the terrible contest, which came near to rending our 
nation asunder, which bathed our country in blood, 
consumed our treasure and wrecked our material in- 
terests,” said Mr. Polk. “Our fathers defended what 
they believed were their constitutional rights with as 
much courage as was ever displayed by men, and it 
was not until every resource had been exhausted and 
they were crushed by an accumulation of evils, the full 
measure of which their enemies knew not of, that they 
acknowledged as lost the cause for which they had 
battled. We southerners of to-day willingly accept the 
conditions which the circumstances of our fathers’ 
lives made it so difficult for them to bear. We believe 
it was misguided agitation that brought on the ter- 
rible crisis that drank up the blood of more than half 


2 6 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


a million men — of those of the South who bared their 
breasts in defense of their rights and of those of the 
North who fought for the preservation of the Union. 
If politicians had spent the same energy in solving the 
slavery question that was expended by them in de- 
nouncing the South and stirring up dissensions, the 
war would have been avoided. If our statesmen had 
been imbued with the same noble, generous sentiments 
of Lincoln, a compromise would probably have been 
effected by which the South would have been paid for 
her slaves and the balance in the population would 
have been adjusted by distributing the negroes 
throughout the states. The government would have 
given the negroes the opportunity to better their con- 
dition and become as strong citizens as their inherent 
capacity would permit. A plan of this kind would have 
been eminently beneficial to civilization and to com- 
merce and would have cost the nation in taxation only 
a small amount compared with the expenses of the 
war, which sacrificed so many brave lives and left 
such terrible after effects. The death of Lincoln, 
whose kind heart felt such sympathy for all people, 
whose strong mental faculties planned for the welfare 
of the whole nation, may be said to have been the cul- 
mination of the cross purposes of forty years of poli- 
tics. Earnestly do I hope that the terrible price we 
paid for a lack of wisdom in settling the slavery prob- 
lem may incite us to the acquirement of higher intel- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


27 


ligence in grappling with other great questions that 
will confront us as a nation. But I may be consuming 
your time in a discussion of topics in which you find 
little interest?” 

“As for myself,” said Marcella, “I am interested in 
all questions that relate to the life of which we form a 
part. Some time ago I read about Jefferson and Mon- 
roe getting up at night and meditating, while they 
held huge folios. I admired these two wise and broad- 
minded statesmen so much that I had a desire to emu- 
late them. I took a large book to my room and as I 
was about to retire Aunt Doley came in and desired 
to know what I was going to do with it. I told her, 
but her advice was that I do more sleeping and less 
thinking, if I hoped to grow strong. She wanted to 
take the book, but I insisted on carrying out my idea. 
Toward morning I awoke, and seating myself on the 
edge of the bed, turned to my book. The result did 
not meet my anticipations, for all that I could think 
of was that I was sleepy. At breakfast I was 
asked how my experiment had succeeded and I was 
forced to confess that I had reached a conclusion that 
I could never hope to save the country, for I found it 
quite ‘impossible {to sit up at night and think. I 
was laughed at but told not to become discouraged, 
so I have continued to take an interest in affairs, 
though I have sometimes wondered why I should 
have thought about the saving of the country when 
there was no apparent reason for saving it. 


28 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


“Before I left Chicago this year I noticed a change 
in the dry goods stores that indicates a dark cloud is 
growing which is going to cause a terrible strain. 
That is the introduction into these stores of depart- 
ments for the sale of toilet articles. I wondered what 
would become of the drug stores and to what extent 
in monopolization of business this departure would 
lead.” 

“That only indicates,” said Mr. Polk, “that while 
force proved that the South did not have the right to 
govern itself according to its own choice a few 
men in the North feel that they have the right, by 
shrewd political and commercial manipulation, to con- 
trol the labor of their fellow men for their own ag- 
grandizement. You will find the southern people 
kind-hearted, and by reason of this disposition and 
from motives of self-interest they took care of the 
negro, but the northern business men, who acquire 
such vast wealth from the energy generated by labor, 
do not care whether the toiler is cared for or not. No 
negroes ever endured in slavery the sufferings that are 
experienced by the slaves of the sweat shops of the 
North. Out of centralization is to come the great 
problem, in the solution of which only our best ef- 
forts should be enlisted, and our zeal in the good work 
should be tempered with justice and should be devoid 
of rancor.” 

“When monopolization causes so much tension as 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


29 


to make it apparent to the people that the only remedy 
is to be just and to accord to everyone a fair oppor- 
tunity to earn his living, I hope that wisdom will pre- 
vail and that greater intelligence will be shown than 
was exercised in the settlement of the slavery ques- 
tion. Judge Daniel Evans of Ottawa, 111., now of 
Chicago, who was the only Democrat to occupy a 
federal office under Lincoln, being appointed consul 
to Bilbao, Spain, told me that he was in the South 
just prior to the war; that the southerners knew that 
slavery had to end, but they were so irritated by the 
unseemly effervescence of northern agitators and so 
alarmed at the prospect of the distribution among 
them of the freed negroes, that they were in a state of 
grave irritability and uncertainty, 

“So it is to-day. The people of wealth do not in- 
tend to cause intense suffering by absorbing an un- 
just proportion of the resources of the people, but 
they have become accustomed to monopolization, 
which causes commercial slavery. This is the natural 
outcome of preceding conditions. We must endeavor 
to be broad, and bring such wisdom to bear, in the 
solution of the problem of centralization, as will im- 
pair no just rights and yet will bring relief to the 
overburdened.” 

“Well, Miss Marcella, the best we can now do is to 
hope; to hope that there will be such an outflow of 
good, sound, American common sense, when occasion 


30 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


demands, that there will be an adjustment satisfactory 
and honorable to all,” said Mr. Polk. “It has been 
said that ‘hope is the sheet anchor of the heart,’ and 
we will let go our anchors, firm in the hope that the 
country will outride all storms. Here comes one 
whom I believe you will both be interested in knowing, 
and you, especially, Miss Marcella.” 

At this point a gentleman who had entered the car 
and was evidently in search of someone reached the 
twain, and as he caught sight of Mr. Polk, said : “Ah, 
here you are. I’m a delegate from a very distressed 
little girl, who can find relief only in your presence. 
But I beg pardon for disturbing you.” 

As he was a stranger to both young ladies, the 
ceremony of introduction to them was gone through 
with by Mr. Polk. The latter said: “Mr. Ralph 
Lower, ladies, belongs to that profession the members 
of which are described as being ubiquitous. That is, 
though he is with us he’s somewhere else ; he is irre- 
pressible and unquenchable; he’s a journalist, and his 
mission is that of Bartholdi’s statue, to enlighten the 
world.” 

“I’m a very formidable person, ladies,” said Mr. 
Lower. 

“He is indeed,” said Mr. Polk. “If you want to 
know anything about the world’s progress, ask him. 
If you would care to learn Mr. Cleveland’s purposes 
when he shall have assumed the presidential chair, in- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


31 


terview him, for I doubt not he can tell you. It is 
his business to know everything. He has grown pro- 
ficient under the tutelage of Mr. J. B. McCullagh of 
the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, who is the originator 
of the interview, which he first practiced on our es- 
teemed vice-president, Alexander H. Stephens, and 
Mr. Lower is a worthy pupil of his great chief, be- 
sides being a great friend of Major Brown, of whom 
we are all so fond and whose coming to Ewell Farm 
as a guest is always an event of general interest.” 

“Now that I have been properly exploited,” said 
Mr. Lower, “let me state the nature of the mission 
upon which I have come. You have had an inventory 
of my charms, ladies, but they are not always potent. 
I am very fond of children and have been doing my 
best to entertain Lyzinka, in the next car, but have 
failed abjectly. She cannot understand why her Un- 
cle Lucius should neglect her, and nothing that I can 
say or do will appease her.” 

“Lyzinka is my favorite niece,” said Mr. Polk, 
“and I reciprocate to the full the depth of her affec- 
tion for me.” 

“That is a very odd name,” remarked Marcella. 
“Is it of southern origin?” 

“No. Lyzinka was named after a Russian princess, 
who was a friend of her grandmother, Mrs. Ewell, 
whose father was Minister to Russia. You, too, Miss 
Marcella, have made use of an unusual name, that I 


32 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


would like to ask you of. You’ve mentioned your 
Aunt Doley.” 

“Ok, yes. Grandfather was very fond of the clas- 
sics and called my aunt ‘Doley,’ which is the Greek 
word for ‘darling.’ It doubtless sounds odd when 
first heard.” 

“But it is very charming when one comes to under- 
stand its significance. If you will excuse me I will 
go back and assuage Lyzinka’s grief. Before doing 
so, let me direct your attention to the fact that Ralph 
is a Buckeye by birth, and as Miss Marcella also 
claims Ohio as her native state, it is possible that in 
comparing notes of your earlier experiences you may 
find much of interest.” 

“Yes, I’m a Buckeye,” said Ralph, “and ‘first saw 
the light,’ as it is customary to remark, in the north- 
western part of the state, in the village of Perrysburg.” 

“Yes, I’ve been there,” said Marcella, “and re- 
call an old hotel overlooking the river, at which 
Daniel Webster or Henry Clay — I don’t recall which, 
now — stopped in an early day. It is a very beautiful 
place — the village, I mean.” 

“I am glad to hear you say so,” said Ralph. “The 
old town is very dear to me, though I am not able to 
get there very often. Whenever I can make it possi- 
ble, for business reasons, to reach Toledo, I always 
take a run up to the old place, which is near by, and 
have recalled to me much that is pleasant to think of, 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


33 


The village was laid out by the federal government 
and was named in honor of the naval hero of Lake 
Erie, Commodore Perry. Almost within the village 
limits is Fort Meigs, and across the river Maumee 
is Fort Miami, both of which played an important 
part in the wars that wrested the Northwest Territory 
from the British and their red allies.” 

“Perrysburg is suggestive of how symmetrical and 
harmonious our country would be if the government 
planned all the work,” said Marcella. 

“You would not uproot the great principle of in- 
dividuality that has developed our nation so rapidly?” 

“Oh, no. But I would have the nation based upon 
an individuality wherein merit was paramount ; where- 
in assurance was less of a commendation than it now 
is, and wherein the interests of the many were not 
made subservient to the interests of the few. I would 
have a love for honor, for the beautiful and for 
humanity, cultivated by the nation, rather than have 
it absorbed by a passion for commerce. But we are 
coming to a stop, and I think this is Ewell Station. 
You alight here, do you not?” 

“Oh, certainly,” said Ralph. “I am going to impose 
myself upon my good friends for a few hours. As I 
shall return to St. Louis to-morrow it is not likely 
that I shall have the pleasure of meeting you before 
my departure.” 

“Well, I am glad to have met you,” said Marcella, 
3 


34 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

in which sentiment Rebecca joined. “There is a bond 
between us, in the fact that we are both Buckeyes, and 
have in a measure compared notes upon southern 
soil. Who knows but we may meet again?” 

“Be assured that we will,” said Ralph, as he bade 
them good-bye on the station platform and rejoined 
his friends for Ewell Farm. 


CHAPTER IV. 

BEECHCROFT. 

“We must all go forth from the world at last, 

And others our places will fill; 

The years of our lives they will soon be past, 

Our hearts in the grave be still; 

But the work we have done will still live on, 

No death it can ever know, 

But down to the future, when we shall have gone, 

Forever its blessings will flow.” 

For though borne on the wave, like ships on the tide, 

The lives of mankind shall move on, 

Not in vain have we lived, not in vain have we died, 

If we live in the work we have done.” 

— Anonymous. 

“Beechcroft” was an interesting, homelike and ad- 
mirably conducted private school. Nature had beau- 
tified the surroundings and the buildings were a 
southern home, with large fireplaces and other char- 
acteristics which make the old-fashioned homes of ihe 
South so interesting. The principal of “Beechcroft,” 
Mrs. Estes, was a woman whose broad experience had 
enhanced very high mental endowments. It had been 
her unusual opportunity to know personally every 
president, from Jackson to Grant. As a very young 
child she remembered President Jackson, at the 
“Hermitage” in Nashville, as a gaunt old man whose 
hair stood straight upon his head. Her father, A. O. P, 
35 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


36 

Nicholson, occupied important official positions in 
Washington for a quarter of a century and was the 
author of the famous “Nicholson Letter” to aspirants 
for the presidency in 1848, besides being United States 
Senator from Tennessee, with Andrew Johnson, when 
the Civil War began. 

At this latter date, one of the brightest and most at- 
tractive girls at Georgetown Convent was Mary Nich- 
olson. When Tennessee seceded from the Union, her 
father, not wishing to oppose the sentiments of his 
people, withdrew his daughter from the convent and 
together they returned to their home in Tennessee. 
Before hostilities began between the sections, Mary 
Nicholson was wedded at her home in Columbia to 
him to whom her heart had been given. One of the 
first to lay down his life for the southern cause was 
this young husband. 

After successfully conducting as principal, for a 
number of years, Columbia Institute, an Episcopal 
school at Columbia, Tenn., Mrs. Estes opened “Beech- 
croft” as a private school and conducted it with such 
wisdom that it was both beneficial and agreeable to 
those under her charge. Every pupil was recognized 
as an individual whose natural inclination was to be 
honorable. The result was that while the scholars 
were perfectly happy, they were controlled without 
friction or strain. 

On a balmy day in April the senior history class 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


37 


was assembled in Evangeline Hall, at “Beechcroft.” 
This was a handsomely proportioned room with a 
large bay-window, giving one a view of distant fields, 
which at this time were covered with daisies. On one 
of the walls of the class-room was a well-lighted pic- 
ture of Longfellow, about which was emblazoned the 
motto : “Art is Long and Time is Fleeting.” Else- 
where upon the wall in conspicuous letters was the 
quotation: “Time and Tide Wait for No Man.” 

Mrs. Estes told the members of the class that, hav- 
ing studied history under the brace system, whereby 
all had boundless opportunity to fortify themselves 
by reference to varied historical sources, she desired 
an exposition of the great principle upon which our 
government is founded. “Marcella Allen,” said Mrs. 
Estes, “will give her views upon the principle I have 
indicated.” 

Though all eyes were turned upon Marcella, who 
was known to be the only northern girl in the school 
and out of which a strong divergence of views might 
develop, she responded promptly : “The great under- 
lying principle of our government is that everyone 
is entitled to a fair opportunity to live.” 

“If that is the case, why is it so difficult to find a 
solution for our industrial problem ?” was Mrs. Estes' 
next question. 

“Because political leaders have been indifferent to 
the rights of the people. Since the death of Thomas 


3§ 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic party, who 
believed that a government should derive its power 
from the masses, our legislation has been entirely in 
the interest of the classes, under which rule of action 
millions of the people have been deprived of the op- 
portunity to obtain work at living wages and money, 
which is the life blood of commerce, has been con- 
centrated in the hands of the few.” 

“How did this condition come about?” 

“Through the formation of political parties. Alex- 
ander Hamilton, the founder of the Republican party, 
who believed that a government should derive its 
power from the classes, was the most influential dele- 
gate in the constitutional convention and drew up that 
document as much as possible in the interest of the 
classes. The protection of slavery by the constitution 
caused the war, and the policy of protection by the 
Republican party since has caused monopolization, 
which has been productive of more intense suffering 
to the masses than slavery caused to the negro.” 

“What were the characteristics of Jefferson and 
Hamilton?” 

“Jefferson said ‘Hamilton was the evil genius of 
America,’ but if the American masses fulfill their 
mission in this world by maintaining the great princi- 
ple of equal rights for all, giving to everyone a fair 
opportunity to live, they will yet come under lasting 
obligations to Alexander Hamilton, for no other man, 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


39 


not Jefferson himself, could have been so instrumental 
in rearing the Temple of Liberty. The Declaration 
of Independence, our great bill of rights, decrees to 
every American Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happi- 
ness. Jefferson would have hesitated to form our 
nation, fearful that liberty, in the course of evolution, 
would make occasion whereby the few might oppress 
the many. 

“Hamilton could not understand that all people 
were diamonds in the rough ; that all must have a fair 
opportunity to be cut and polished. While very many 
of us would have flaws of character and few would 
conform to the lapidary’s definition of ‘gem,’ yet, as 
diamonds are to their owners, all having value, so, too, 
is every human being to his God, who owns our world 
and demands of His children love for each other. 
Hamilton thought life was only for those who, like 
himself, came into the world cut and polished, whereas 
Jefferson wanted every person who lived to have the 
opportunity to be cut and polished, believing that 
there were hidden beauties, and out of the rough and 
uneven surfaces might be evolved gems of purest ray 
serene, like our beloved Lincoln. Hamilton was so 
opposed to Jefferson’s theories that it may be fairly 
assumed that he would have looked upon Lincoln as 
a ‘bogie-man.’ The sheet anchor of Lincoln’s faith 
was that this nation had for its basic principle the 
Declaration of Independence, whereas Hamilton and 


40 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


John Adams believed this grand charter of our lib- 
erties, to adopt the language of a gifted New York 
lawyer, to be little better than ‘glittering generalities.’ 
When the Supreme Author of our being, who loves 
each one whom He brings into this world, had per- 
mitted Hamilton to employ his skill in erecting this 
Temple of Liberty for the American people, his life 
was cut short. He was under the mistaken impression 
that God had endowed him with great genius to 
formulate a plan of government for himself, and 
those who were blessed with education or wealth. 
Hamilton, like the people who have commercial and 
political power to-day, which they utilize entirely for 
personal aggrandizement, forgot that the revolutionary 
soldier and his associates had performed the work that 
made the formation of the nation possible, and that 
they had an equal right to share in the benefits. No one 
had a more winning personality or was more courteous 
than Hamilton, but like the politicians and plutocrats 
of our own day, he believed that the vast majority of 
people existed only as hewers of wood and drawers of 
water, and were unreasonable to entertain aspirations 
beyond this. Notwithstanding his mistaken ideas of 
the rights of humanity, he accomplished the greatest 
work any human being has achieved, for the American 
nation owes its existence to Alexander Hamilton. 
Only his untiring energy could have persuaded the 
people, who opposed a strong centralized government, 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 4 1 

to form one. Sixty-eight of the eighty-four papers 
composing The Federalist were written by Hamilton. 
Just as the great power, electricity, is generated by 
positive and negative forces, so liberty could only be 
saved to us by the positive and negative energy of 
Jefferson and Hamilton, combined. 

“To-day, if we would prove worthy of liberty, we 
must follow the advice of Lincoln and stand by the 
principles of Jefferson, yet we must appreciate the 
labors of Hamilton, who reluctantly put aside his own 
views to build the republic for the people. Jefferson 
was as much of an aristocrat as Hamilton, in his en- 
joyment of refinement and cultivation, but he did not 
believe in securing opportunities at the expense of his 
fellow men. He did not believe in compulsion, but in 
moral suasion. He did not believe, as did Hamilton, 
that the Creator of the universe and the loving Father 
of the human race had so set the seal of condemna- 
tion upon the masses as to require of them uncom- 
plaining service to those whom for convenience I have 
described as the ‘classes.’ Jefferson felt, as did Lin- 
coln, that the power who could create a life had put 
into every such life the incentive to walk uprightly, and 
it was only the unjust pressure that was brought to 
bear that swerved people from the straight and nar- 
row path. Lift the unjust weight that is resting 
upon the shoulders of the people, and there will be 
few but will be good and true and gratefully perform 


\1 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

the mission their God has sent them into the world 
to accomplish. 

“Jefferson did not believe any more than Hamilton 
in social equality, but he did believe that every human 
being was equally entitled to the right to become what 
his God-given capacity would permit him to be, and 
to receive a just remuneration for his services to 
society. The working people of to-day, the bone and 
sinew, the motive power of our commercial prosperity, 
do not ask for social equality, but they do demand an 
honest return for their labors. 

“Jefferson’s life was full and complete, and it may 
be mentioned, incidentally, that he wrote his own 
epitaph. He desired to be remembered as the author 
of the Declaration of Independence and of the law 
guaranteeing religious liberty to the people of his 
state, and as the founder of the University of Virginia. 
His comprehensive mind combined the wisdom and 
culture of the ages, in the University of Virginia, the 
fundamental principles of which are Morality, Religion 
and Freedom. Jefferson said : T have sworn upon the 
altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny 
over the mind of man.’ On the frieze of the rotunda 
of the auditorium is the passage of scripture: ‘And 
ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you 
free.’ Hamilton would subject all people to his mind. 
Jefferson would only be an instrument in the hands 
of God to assist in giving God’s people the opportunity 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


43 


to develop. During the presidential administration 
of John Quincy Adams, on the fiftieth anniversary of 
the people’s freedom — July 4th, 1826 — and while the 
nation was giving vent to the patriotic enthusiasm in- 
cident to the day, Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia, and 
John Adams, in Massachusetts, passed to their reward. 
Daniel Webster said: ‘Poetry itself has hardly closed 
illustrious lives and finished the career of earthly re- 
nown by such a consummation.’ ” 

“What problem in the maintenance of liberty does 
the present unrest indicate that we are facing?” asked 
Mrs. Estes. 

“The crucial test our nation will be called upon to 
meet before the dawn of 'the twentieth century will be 
to overcome the evil effects of a strong centralized 
government, which is manipulated through the lobby 
system, the spoils system and the corruption of voters 
by the use of vast campaign funds, in the interest of 
the money power and favorable to trusts and class 
interests, whereby is caused the concentration of 
wealth, won by the sweat of labor, in the hands of the 
parasites.” 

“How can these problems be solved without pre- 
cipitating a crisis?” 

“By remembering that we are the children of a just 
God and that a feeling of charity and forbearance 
permeates the whole human race that may be awak- 
ened by the use of proper means. We must apply 


44 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


ourselves zealously to the solution and to such a one 
as will injure the interests of no individual and yet 
will lift the unjust burdens from the shoulders of 
humanity. We will find the precedent on which to 
base this work, not in the Constitution of the United 
States, but in something above and beyond that 
revered document. I can best indicate to you my 
meaning by citing briefly from the Hon. William H. 
Seward, who said in 1858: ‘There is a law higher than 
the constitution — the law of humanity.’ 

“By adhering to the principles of the Declaration of 
Independence we will prove ourselves worthy of the 
work of our great Lincoln, who said, as he raised the 
flag above Independence Hall on Washington’s birth- 
day, 1861 : ‘If this nation can be saved and the princi- 
ples of the Declaration of Independence maintained, 
which give hope to the down-trodden of the world, 
that in time the weights will be lifted, I will be one 
of the happiest of men. Rather than these principles 
should die, I would prefer to be assassinated on this 
spot.” 


CHAPTER V. 


NEW ORLEANS. 

“All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 

Whose body nature is, and God the soul.” 

— Pope. 

In early May, when one of America’s most interest- 
ing cities, New Orleans, was clothed in the floral pro- 
fusion that suggests to the mind of the onlooker the 
beauties of paradise, a party of happy people met by 
appointment at the French Market in the city named. 
It was an early hour in the morning, five o’clock, 
and after enjoying the cosmopolitan picture all felt 
the effects of so early an arising, and they were ready, 
with ravenous appetites, to breakfast deliciously at a 
near-by French restaurant. Here it was arranged that 
they should visit one of the first houses of worship 
reared to the Divine Father in this country, the St. 
Louis Cathedral. It was agreed that they should di- 
vide up into groups, since there were sights, by various 
ways, that some preferred more than others, but the 
place of reassembling was to be the church referred to, 
and after that had been disposed of as an object of 
interest, they were to visit the U. S. Mint and there 
witness the operation of transforming the bullion into 
coin of the realm. 

Mr. Polk was of the party, and after the pangs of 
hunger had been dissipated and they were about to 
45 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


46 

start upon their further tour of sight-seeing, he asked 
the chaperone, Mrs. Estes, if, on the way to the cathe- 
dral, she would permit him to show Marcella the 
equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, for whose char- 
acter and achievements she appeared to feel a special 
admiration. Permission having been granted, the two 
set forth. In the oval-shaped park, opposite the old 
cathedral, stood the statue of Jackson, which seemed 
the embodiment of strength, a perfect representation 
of the firmness of the man, who, though embalmed in 
bronze, declared to the South, from the pinnacle upon 
which he stood, the fallacy of disunion. Here, Jackson, 
who had never known defeat in life, stood triumphant 
in death, telling the South during its terrible struggle 
to dissolve the Union, in words chiseled into the in- 
destructible granite which composed the base of his 
monument, that “United We Stand; Divided We 
Fall.” 

Marcella expressed her delight with the statue, the 
grandeur of which must be seen to be appreciated, 
and thanked Mr. Polk for having directed her to it. 

Mr. Polk asked Marcella for her impressions of the 
southern metropolis and she said : “New Orleans is 
like the South and the people thereof. It is a city 
with an individuality so marked that you are inter- 
ested and drawn to it by a very friendly feeling. It 
is like an old castle, to the architectural features of 
which different generations have lent their aid, all con- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


47 


tributing to a variety most pleasing. There is less of 
the sameness that is found in our other cities. I like 
the quaintness of the old French city. St. Charles 
avenue is very beautiful, and so restful, with its wealth 
of shade. I do not care for exclusiveness, but the 
high walls around the homes, which I understand are 
intended to give the occupants a larger degree of 
freedom in their outdoor life, during the heated .term, 
would give one a comfortable sensation, growing out 
of the feeling that one’s home was one’s very own, into 
which no prying eye could surreptitiously find its way. 

“The statue of Robert E. Lee, which occupies so 
prominent a position in the heart of the city, seems 
to me significant of the southern feeling. They have 
placed the gallant Virginian, who merited their deepest 
love, upon as high a pedestal as artistic proportions 
would permit. The pages of history do not record a 
people who fought more heroically for their rights or 
were less bowed down by defeat, with its attendant 
misfortunes. Neither bronze nor granite are required 
to attest the exalted character of General Lee, which 
will always command the attention of posterity. Like 
Lincoln, Lee idealized the character of Washington, 
and his life was a consistent effort to live up to his 
ideal.” 

“Less generally known to the world at large, of 
New Orleans’ art treasures, is the statue of Margaret. 
Have you seen it, Miss Allen?” asked Mr. Folk, 


4 8 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


“Yes,” was Marcella’s reply, “and it is most beauti- 
fully perfect, but above and beyond its artistic merit 
I admire the character of the woman whose goodness 
it serves to recall to the unthinking, and to those 
who have been living in ignorance of her it breathes 
a wholesome lesson. To think that a poor baker 
woman should have been so honored, and yet the 
people of New Orleans honored themselves when they 
erected this shaft to her memory. She acquired wealth 
and instead of hoarding it and striving by devious ways 
to increase her store, she lavished it upon the poor 
and heart-stricken, lifting them up into God’s sun- 
light and bidding them be of good cheer, for however 
dark had been their way, the Heavenly Father was not 
unmindful of them. I believe there is a sentiment in 
every human heart which responds to a desire to do 
good deeds, but the strained conditions under which 
we are living make it impossible for the great major- 
ity to live up to their ideal. The American people love 
what is just to humanity so well that I believe, with 
good judgment, it will be possible to so mold condi- 
tions that all will have a fair opportunity to live as 
God intended that we should.” 

“Here in New Orleans Lincoln formed the res- 
olution to do everything within his power to abol- 
ish the terrible evil, when he saw the slaves sold 
on the block. I feel a very strong inclination 
to devote every energy of my life to alleviate the 


THE CRUCIAL TEST.- 


49 

conditions which exist as a result of the war and out 
of which have grown industrial phenomena that are 
productive of distress to millions of our people. I 
want to live to some purpose; to be of some help to 
my fellow mortal.” 

“Well, Miss Allen,” said Mr. Polk, “I can con- 
tribute of my efforts to the cause you have outlined. I 
have been giving some consideration to questions that 
have interested you, and especially to finance. Most 
of our national difficulties come from our monetary 
system, which Hamilton founded on the gambling 
scheme with which John Law had manipulated the 
finances of France after the death of Louis XIV, and 
neither in peace nor in war has it been responsive to 
the needs of the people. In times of peace we have 
financial panics and in times of war we have to depend 
on the unjust bond system. I believe our circulating 
medium should be so adjusted that every man who is 
willing to work eight hours a day should have work 
and receive at least a dollar and a half a day. That 
the price of produce should be so regulated that the 
producer will receive living compensation for his labor. 
Every reasonable means should be adopted to dis- 
courage speculation, as speculation causes suffering to 
the loser and' suffering is injurious to society. If it is 
fair for some men to receive from society thousands 
of dollars a day, it is fair to form a system under which 


4 


50 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


every man will receive at least a dollar and a half a 
day for eight hours’ labor.” 

“I shall be very glad to have you a co-worker in 
the cause of humanity,” said Marcella, “and I feel that 
whatever of good you measure out to others will be 
measured out to you. There is a feeling of gratifica- 
tion that comes from trying to help others less fortu- 
nate than ourselves that no words can express. We 
may accomplish little, but if we do the best that we 
can and our hearts are in the work, the reward comes 
to us just the same. We may meet with derision and 
be subjected to the chaffing of our friends ; we may be 
seriously advised by our well-wishers of the magnitude 
of the evil we are hopeful of overthrowing, but none 
the less should we persevere. We should remember 
the fable of the mouse and the lion. The king of 
beasts had been caught in a fowler’s net, and, despite 
his dreadful roars and terrific struggles, was unabje 
to free himself. Along came a tiny mouse, one of the 
smallest of God’s created things, and seeing the plight 
of the king, set to work to free him. Strand by strand 
the net fell away before the onslaught of his sharp 
teeth, until the lion was freed from his entanglements 
and once more stood forth the king of the brute crea- 
tion. The least of us may do some good if we but 
set about it.” 

“I agree with you, of course, for we have daily proof 
of the truth of what you have said. By the way, you 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


51 


have ‘done’ the New Orleans Exposition, and may I 
ask how it impressed you ?” said Mr. Polk. 

'‘Seeing a fair is like reading one of our large metro- 
politan dailies. You try to absorb so much with your 
limited capacity, that when you’ve got through you 
have a hodge-podge of information, without definite 
outlines. Still, I enjoyed the fair very much. What I 
liked best of all was Liberty Bell, with the sea moss 
hanging about it. The trip of this appealing symbol 
of Freedom, from its home in Independence Hall to 
the Exposition in this beautiful southern city, will 
forge another link in the chain that binds North and 
South in one indissoluble whole. It serves to remind 
us that we must be ever vigilant in our efforts to main- 
tain Liberty or this priceless heritage will pass from 
us. As an individual, in the course of development, 
continually meets with changes which are turning 
points in his life, and from which he may take his 
course toward success or failure, so a nation, in the 
course of its evolution, is called upon to face problems 
on the solution of which depends the rise or fall of 
civilization. When the negative force of evil and the 
positive force of good to mankind meet in the great 
contest of our day to solve the question of making 
centralization a success, earnestly do I hope and firmly 
do I believe that our people will show intelligence 
enough to adjust conditions so that we will deserve to 
share in the tidings Liberty Bell rang out to the world 
more than a century ago.” 


52 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


“How do you think the crucial test of our times 
may be safely met and passed?” 

“We must remember that we all come from the same 
divine mold, that we are of one people, and that God 
Almighty is the Father of us all ; that rich or poor, 
high or low in the social scale, we only differ as we 
are influenced by the two most powerful forces of life 
— heredity and environment. By one of the most ter- 
rible wars known to history we have decided that cen- 
tralization must be the motive power of our govern- 
ment, but the same political party that denounced 
negro slavery in the South and carried on a war, which, 
as Lincoln said in his second inaugural, sunk all the 
wealth piled up by the bondman’s two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited toil, has, through class legis- 
lation, permitted a few capitalists to absorb the money 
on the judicious distribution of which depends the 
welfare of society. It is not just, it is not right that a 
few men should be permitted to absorb the greater 
portion of the wealth produced by labor in this coun- 
try of ours. The commercial depressions and financial 
panics that have occurred periodically since we came 
into being as a nation have found easement only 
through humanity’s most terrible afflictions, war or 
failure of crops in foreign lands. The problem this 
presents is almost overwhelming, and vast as are our 
resources and boundless as is our energy there is none 
too much for its solution. Commercial depressions 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


53 


and business paralysis, as they are called, will grow 
more severe with each stroke in our disorganized com- 
mercial world until, if we do not find a remedy, we 
will grow into a state of decrepitude that will be but 
a forerunner of national collapse.” 

“How can results so disastrous be prevented?” 

“I do not despair. We have had ample proof in the 
life of our nation of the existence of an overruling 
Providence. All events for and against Liberty seem 
to have been utilized by God for the strengthening of 
the nation. The terribly leveling processes of defeat 
in the Civil War have tended to make conditions in the 
South among the white people more equal. In the 
North the prosperity caused by success in a great war 
which started latent commerce and threw vast fortunes 
into the hands of government contractors, which has 
been supplemented by the terrible evils of class legis- 
lation, which has created such unequal conditions in 
the North that the welfare of society and the stability 
of government are threatened. As the friction in- 
creases and capital continues to crook the knee in sup- 
pliance to the money god, regardless of the rights of 
humanity, the ground is being cut from under the 
feet of labor and the producing classes are experiencing 
a form of serfdom from which they will seek relief by 
violence, if another way of escape is not opened to 
them. The pressure King George brought to bear 
upon our ancestors to wrest revenue from them, and 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


54 

which caused them to declare in our deed of liberty 
to humanity equal rights for all, will afford no 
comparison to the pressure that will be brought to 
bear by King Capital to extract tribute from the pro- 
ducers and consumers of our nation. These pro- 
ducers and consumers are as much the creators of 
wealth for King Capital as were our ancestors the 
creators of revenue for King George. What must be 
done to right the manifest wrong that is sapping our 
national life? What better can we do than follow the 
advice of Abraham Lincoln, the liberator of the bond- 
man and the savior of our nation, who said: ‘To-day 
they say the black man is not entitled to liberty, but 
our charter of liberty says every man, every repre- 
sentative of his Creator, is entitled to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness. If they are allowed to 
maintain to-day that the black man is not entitled to 
life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, in a few years 
they may say that only the rich man is entitled to 
these rights. We have lost our way; we must go 
back to the Declaration of Independence, and drink 
at the fountain of Liberty, near which flowed the blood 
of our revolutionary ancestors ; then when those who 
come after us find themselves in trouble, they must 
follow our example.’ ” 

“How can we bring intelligence enough to bear to 
solve these problems without causing a crisis?” 

“By dealing fairly with all and by not invading the 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


55 

just rights of anyone. We cannot expect those who 
have become accustomed to the conditions incident 
to the possession of vast wealth, though its acquire- 
ment has taken the bread and butter out of the mouths 
of helpless women and children, to willingly submit 
to changed conditions any more than the Southern 
people were willing to relinquish slavery, which was 
the source of their wealth. As to the slavery question, 
we know to-day that a much more satisfactory solu- 
tion could have been arrived at than was finally 
adopted, one more in keeping with progress and civili- 
zation. We know that enough treasure was sunk in 
the contest between the sections to have purchased the 
freedom of the slaves at their full market value, and 
vastly more, too. If the money spent in our terrible 
Civil War, which drank up the blood of 600,000 of the 
world’s bravest men, had been expended for the pur- 
chase of the slaves and for their subsequent enlighten- 
ment, that they might the better enjoy the rights of 
freemen, what a tremendous salvage there would have 
been in blood and treasure, in bitterness of heart, in 
tears of widows and of children, and in woes for which 
there is no relief this side of eternity. It would have 
been a verification of the utterance of one of America’s 
greatest generals — one of the most unassuming of men, 
which is one of the truest signs of greatness — Ulysses 
S. Grant, who said: ‘There has never been a war that 
could not have been better settled by arbitration.’ The 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


56 

people of the capitalistic class are not inhuman, as 
the suffering they indifferently bring upon humanity 
would seem to indicate. We are to blame as a people 
for permitting those whom we entrust with the law- 
making power to legislate against public interests. 
To-day, there is in New York City the Society of the 
Downtrodden, and the members of the association are 
Consuela Vanderbilt (Duchess of Marlborough), 
Pauline Whitney (Mrs. Paget), Gertrude Vanderbilt 
(Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney), and others, who are 
daughters of America’s moneyed aristocracy. The ter- 
rible sufferings of humanity in the slums of the great 
city have appealed to their hearts and awakened their 
sympathy and caused them to study the problem of 
why they should have so much and others so little. 
All classes are open to humane influences, and this is 
a characteristic of our people. It is not the people 
who have taken advantage of their opportunities and 
the unwise laws of our land to absorb vast wealth upon 
whom our maledictions should be vented. We have 
all been guilty of inertia. We have slumbered when 
we should have been wide awake. Instead of finding 
fault with our comrades in somnolency, let us awaken 
and by combined effort amend the conditions that are 
so oppressive. Possession is nine points in law, some- 
one has aptly remarked, and we are subject to the law 
and upholders of it. We cannot dispossess the rich 
by the application of force, as doing so would bring 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 57 

the same chain of miseries that followed in the wake 
of the French Revolution and of our Civil War. 
Would it not be better for us and for civilization to 
profit by experience and, .as the next step in the evolu- 
tion of progress, buy our commercial freedom? 
While being fair to every one we could so adjust our 
system of society that every American would have a 
fair opportunity for honest work at living wages, a 
right that he inherits from his God and which should 
be inalienable.” 

“How can the commercial system be so adjusted 
as to attain this end?” 

“By following the road blazed by the corporations 
and trusts. They have taught us a lesson in indus- 
trial enterprise which will be well worth the price we 
will have to pay for our freedom from commercial 
bondage into which we have been precipitated through 
the manipulation of our legislation and finances by 
shrewd schemers.- Labor must follow the system and 
organization of the trusts to bring about the best re- 
sults. Labor must be true to the teachings of the 
Standard Oil Company and the great packing con- 
cerns that produce vast wealth for their stockholders 
by careful business management and by utilizing every 
particle of material that comes to their hands. 
Labor must follow the methods of the trust and make 
centralization a success by adjusting commerce, as 
our government is, to a center, which will be as vital 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


58 

and useful to our commercial system as our heart is 
to our physical system.” 

“Do you think the Standard Oil Trust has been 
beneficial or injurious to the people at large?” 

“We know it has been vastly beneficial to Mr. 
Rockefeller and his business associates, but if we will 
avail ourselves of the lesson in organization and sys- 
tem which they have taught us we may all share to a 
degree in the prosperity which they enjoy. I do not 
credit the Standard with entertaining humanitarian 
views. They are in business to make money and the 
price of oil is not regulated so much by Mr. Rocke- 
feller’s dictum as by the law of supply and demand. 
When oil is low you will find that other commodities 
show a downward tendency. Consumption regulates 
the price. When wages are lowered, or labor is largely 
dispensed with, through the increased use of ma- 
chinery, or from any other cause, the consumption 
decreases, for the era of economy has set in with the 
wage-worker, and he must pinch and deny himself to 
make ends meet. Let the labor market be braced up 
through war or any other unnatural cause, and forth- 
with the commercial dragon with its many trust heads 
develops a rejuvenated appetite and proceeds to 
squeeze as large a profit as possible out of the com- 
modities it controls. 

“The tendency to centralization which machinery, 
trusts, department stores and our form of government 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


59 


cause will increase so rapidly before we reach the fifth 
milestone in our century and a quarter of existence 
as a nation, that the entire producing class will be at 
the mercy of the few. These latter will organize the 
business of the country into a few gigantic corpora- 
tions, and they will practically control the industrial 
interests. Do not understand me as believing that 
these corporations are soulless, that the people who 
compose them are inhuman, and out of their greed of 
wealth are callous to the sufferings of the masses. In 
weighing the motives of our fellow men, let us be just, 
and if we err in our judgments let the inclination be 
toward mercy, bearing ever in mind the Golden Rule, 
‘Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto 
you.’ This condition of centralization will come 
about naturally and the remedy, which rests with the 
people, is to organize society and administer the 
government as a great national trust, for the benefit 
of all the people. It is now thirty years since Mr. 
Rockefeller, a bookkeeper with nothing beyond the 
pay which attaches to such a position, was able to 
compass the great scheme of monopolizing the oil in- 
dustry. He was a man of brains and with the ability 
to apply them. He secured the cooperation of Mr. 
Henry M. Flagler and the latter secured the financial 
backing necessary to launch the project, from his rela- 
tives, the Harknesses of Cleveland. According to nat- 
ural law, it would seem as though Mr. Rockefeller was 


6o 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


obligated to use the high mental endowment entrusted 
to him by his God for the benefit of his fellow men. 

“Talent does not belong to the individual, but is a 
gift to the world, and everyone benefits or suffers ac- 
cordingly as it is used. Genius is a lighthouse, meant 
to give light to the world ; the person who bears it is 
the rock upon which the lighthouse is built.” ‘Judge 
not that ye be not judged.’ We must not judge. Per- 
haps Mr. Rockefeller does the most that is in his 
power for his fellow men. Perhaps God intended that 
he should teach the world a lesson in organization and 
system. When we systematize society we will have 
the opportunity to cultivate and develop the best that 
is in every individual. When the present strain is re- 
lieved the youth of the land can be trained to more 
fully realize the beauties and benefits of right living 
and our country can more nearly fulfill Jefferson’s 
conception of classic beauty as displayed in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia. Talent will be developed. 

“This mournful truth is everywhere confess’d, 

Slow rises worth by poverty depressed.” 

“Science and invention will surpass the marvelous 
developments hitherto attained ; art will show un- 
wonted progress ; great musicians and singers will be 
brought forward to entertain the world and the people 
of our land will reach a state of cultivation whereby 
they can appreciate the manifold advantages that are 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


6l 


offered them. I do not think the picture overdrawn. 
The power is in the people and there is an overruling 
Providence in no wise averse to the betterment of His 
children. 

“It would be nice to have the people of all our cities 
so cultivated that they could appreciate advantages 
like the French opera, which is one of the greatest at- 
tractions of the ‘Crescent City.’ New Orleans is the 
only city in our country which can claim to have a 
grand opera company distinctively its own. The 
French opera, which has been one of the famed at- 
tractions of the South since 1824, has been sustained 
by the people of New Orleans by a patronage which is 
virtually a perpetual subsidy. While New York and 
Chicago have been hearing great European stars, for 
brief seasons and at greater or less intervals, the 
French company, following its traditions and relying 
upon the strength of its support, season after season, 
has been giving interpretations of the works of all the 
great composers, of whatever school. 

“We may be late in meeting our appointment if we 
continue to discuss these questions.” 

“Possibly that is so. Well, we may have another op- 
portunity to talk about these matters, wherein a mutu- 
ality of feeling has been shown. I think you will like 
the old French cathedral, where we are to rejoin our 
companions, as it seems to unite us to an interesting 
past.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


MARYLAND. 

“Friendship! Mysterious cement of the soul! 

Sweet’ner of Life! and solder of Society 1” 

— Blair. 

In June Marcella’s Aunt Doley came to Beechcroft, 
accompanied by her little daughter Florence, who was 
named after the beautiful town of Florence, Alabama, 
where her mother had many friends. After participat- 
ing in the interesting commencement exercises at 
Beechcroft, Marcella went with her aunt and little 
cousin to Pittsfield, Mass. Mrs. Turtle left Marcella 
in care of her mother-in-law, one of the kindest and 
best of women, thinking a rest in the delightfuly lo- 
cated city named would be beneficial to Marcella, as 
her physician said her mind was too active for her 
physical strength. After a year’s rest Marcella seemed 
so much stronger that her aunt advised with her father 
about sending her to school again, and jointly they 
selected St. Joseph’s Academy. 

Captain Turtle, accompanied by his wife and Mar- 
cella, met at the breakfast table in a small hotel in 
Fmmitsburg, a mountain town of Maryland, Colonel 
Gambill, who was accompanied by his daughter Wil- 
lie, a beautiful southern girl, with lustrous dark eyes, 
wavy black hair and the glow of color in her cheeks 
indicated that she had enjoyed outdoor exercise. 

62 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


63 


Colonel Gambill was a handsome English gentle- 
man, of Roanoke, Virginia, who carried a maimed arm 
as a remembrance of Pickett’s charge at the battle of 
Gettysburg, when 18,000 men moved forward through 
a deadly storm of iron and lead up to the very can- 
non’s mouth, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture 
Cemetery Hill, the strongest position of the Federal 
army. 

Marcella and Willie, who were destined to become 
intimate friends, were to be enrolled as pupils at St. 
Joseph’s Academy, the mother house of the Sisters of 
Charity, who did such noble work on- the battlefields 
of the Civil War that Lincoln called them “the Angels 
of Mercy.” The drive from the hotel in a six-passen- 
ger surrey was much enjoyed, as on this bright morn- 
ing the scenery was charming. 

The academy is located in a beautiful valley, 
nestled by the Blue Ridge mountains. Mrs. Turtle 
said Marcella’s father had left to her decision the 
choice of a school; that Georgetown, Washington, 
Manhattanvillc, New York, and Eden Hall, Albany, 
had been considered, but that Marcella desired to at- 
tend a school that was not located near a large city. 
For beauty of scenery and seclusion this school was 
ideally situated. As they drove up the long avenue to 
the entrance, Colonel Gambill said : “Willie, who, by 
the way, is named after her mother’s favorite brother, 
has been attending a Methodist school in V irginia, but 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


64 

as she is not strong we decided that a change would be 
beneficial. I chose St. Joseph’s, as I was nursed by 
Sister Madeline in Richmond, when I was wounded in 
the war. I am interested in this location, as in these 
buildings Meade started to mount his guns to give 
battle to Lee’s advancing hosts, when General Han- 
cock sent word that the Confederate army was mass- 
ing at Gettysburg. I wonder if the result might have 
been different had the battle been fought at Emmits- 
burg, but it was as well, probably, on account of the 
slavery issue, which caused the war, that the South 
met defeat. Now the North and the South must unite 
to make the condition of society such that every mem- 
ber will have a fair opportunity to make a good show- 
ing in life’s battle, so that great victories will be fairly 
won for progress and civilization, and each individual 
will receive a just recompense for his efforts to attain 
this end.” 

With the good Mother Euphemia and under the 
care of Sister Lucia, Willie and Marcella were left by 
their relatives. Similarity of disposition united the 
two girls in the strongest bonds of friendship. 
Through the Randolph family of Virginia Willie, on 
her mother’s side, was a descendant of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, while Marcella’s father was a descendant of the 
New Englander, Ethan Allen, whose rapid actions 
were sustained by an active mind, possessed by the 
strongest reasoning faculties, Allen summed up the 


THE CRUCTAL TEST. 65 

injustice of New York in regard to the ownership of 
Vermont by declaring that “the Gods of the valleys 
were not the Gods of the hills.” With Ethan Allen’s 
name is associated the quickest and most decisive ac- 
tion of the Revolutionary War. With a few soldiers he 
aroused Captain Delaplace early in the morning and 
demanded the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, “in the 
name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Con- 
gress.” Imprisonment by the English could not sub- 
due nor bribes divert Ethan Allen, the leader of the 
“Green Mountain Boys,” from his efforts to secure 
better conditions for mankind. 

Before Admiral Dewey became the nation’s hero, 
while located at Pensacola Navy Yard, he was kind 
enough to escort Marcella’s Aunt Doley home from 
breakfast, where they had been entertained, and in the 
light of subsequent events the memory is a cherished 
one. 

As the Olympia, homeward bound, steamed out 
of Manila Bay, where Dewey won his great victory, 
and consequent upon which the adulation of the 
American people has been lavished upon him without 
turning his head, the admiral said that the honor that 
he appreciated most highly was the proposal by the 
state of Vermont to erect within his native town a 
bronze statue of himself, to be placed in the capitol at 
Montpelier, facing that of Ethan Allen, which, as a 
boy, he had so often viewed with reverence. Said 
5 


66 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Admiral Dewey: “I think the inscription on the base 
of Allen’s statue reads, ‘Surrender to the Great Jehovah 
and the Continental Congress.’ ” 

A similarity of circumstances aroused in Willie and 
Marcella the dispositions of their ancestors to feel for 
and to work to attain better conditions for humanity. 
These young girls felt that it was as necessary to-day 
to stand for the Rights of Humanity as when Jefferson 
drew up the Declaration of Independence and Ethan 
Allen fought to establish the great principles of Lib- 
erty. They did not think that anyone was bad, inher- 
ently ; they believed that everyone was anxious to do 
right, as the natural feeling of every normal person 
was to be successful in life and to be honored after 
death. They believed in Pope’s portrayal of Life, 

“All nature is but art unknown to thee; 

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; 

All discord, harmony not understood, 

All partial evil, universal good; 

And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite, 

One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.” 

They thought the reason there was so much sin and 
suffering in the world was because Christianity, which 
should be the most uplifting among mundane influ- 
ences, had drifted away from its anchorage in Christ’s 
doctrine of love for Humanity; that so-called Chris- 
tians inclined to the spirit of Phariseeism, believ- 
ing in their own righteousness and having little of 
Christ’s love and helpfulness for those who had 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 67 

stumbled in their progress along life’s pathway 
or succumbed to temptations that were ever pres- 
ent along the route from the cradle to the grave. 
They felt that the world needed less of censure from 
those who posed as the exponents of rectitude, less of 
a willingness to drive the iron into the souls of the 
sinful and suffering, and more of the Christ spirit that 
uplifts the fainting, encourages the faltering, ministers 
to the suffering, binds up the wounds of the stricken 
and bids all to hope. The truth of “man’s inhumanity 
to man” impressed itself upon them, demonstrated, as 
it was, in the severity of the laws which made crime 
the only recourse of an offender; in the “holier than 
thou” atmosphere that pervaded the churches. They 
believed that the only rule for the proper and equit- 
able adjustment of society, commended as it was of 
Christ, was the Golden Rule — “Do By Others As You 
Would Be Done By;” also a strict construction of 
God’s law — “Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged,” 
for “As You Mete It Out To Others, So It Will Be 
Meted Out To You.” 

Up and down the beautiful mountain stream that 
runs through the grounds of St. Joseph’s Academy 
Willie and Marcella walked, and in a pretty little sum- 
mer house they would rest while discussing plans 
whereby they might be helpful to their kind. “As the 
twig is bent so the tree inclines,” and it was their 
judgment that to ameliorate conditions and bring peo- 


68 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


pie to a proper understanding of the rights of their 
fellows, the educational process should begin with the 
children. They realized how vast a numb.er of children 
never came within reach of an elevating influence and 
they sought to acquaint themselves with methods 
which would cause every child to 

“Count that day lost whose low descending sun 

Views from thy hand no worthy action done.” 

These young women realized that they had under- 
taken a contract of extraordinary dimensions, but this 
did not daunt the dark-eyed southern girl or the fair- 
haired northerner, who represented a combination of 
the tenacity of purpose of Thomas Jefferson and the 
indomitable energy of Ethan Allen. They believed if 
the republic was to survive, society must be adjusted to 
the foundations of Liberty, to the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence, which entitle every 
American to Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. 
They thought the people had carried our system of 
commerce and education too far. While education 
prepared people to enjoy greater advantages, com- 
merce, through absorption, narrowed the opportuni- 
ties for success and the more people were educated 
the more keenly they felt the suffering of failure in life. 
Marcella recalled to mind a young man who had grad- 
uated from Harvard with high honors, and was re- 
lated to some of the most influential families of the 
country, yet was compelled, when he sought to make 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


69 

a place for himself in the world, to accept a position 
wherein the compensation was barely sufficient to pay 
for the food he ate. 

They thought our government should be based on 
honesty and humanity rather than upon commerce 
and education, and little children should not be over- 
educated, the evils of which Mrs. Lew Wallace has 
since so vividly described in the following article: 

SCHOLARS MUST STAND LIKE HUMAN VESSELS 
AND BE LOADED WITH FACTS. 

“If your boy’s tastes are not scholarly you make 
him miserable trying to force a love of learning. He 
will go through the books and the books will go 
through him ; there is no assimilation. After all, what 
are our children being educated for? The boys are to 
be bread-winners. They must hurry through and ‘hus- 
tle for a living.’ The girls — let us believe it — are fu- 
ture home-makers. The word helpmeet is obsolete — 
left behind with the woman who made Eden Paradise. 
Constantly the question is being brought up : ‘Shall 
this and that be added to our public schools?’ But 
who asks, ‘Can the scholars endure any more?’ They 
have no protests nor petition ; they must stand like 
human vessels, ready to be filled to the brim with mix- 
tures of facts. I plead for a childhood of the soul as 
well as of the body, for the free air, the blessed sun- 
shine, the moderate task ended at the schoolhouse. 
This night young heads are leaning against their moth- 


70 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


ers, tired as no young things ever should be, and it is 
a sorrowful sound to hear a child waking from what 
might be the sunny slumber of a light heart beating to 
healthful music, to ask in troubled voice: ‘Do you 
think I can make the pass grade?’ It is said that they 
like to go to school. Yes, and they would like it twice 
as well if there were half as much to learn. Many 
children have I known, but not one who loved study 
for its own sake. Companionship is what lures them. 
Instead of wandering up and down the wilderness of 
wintry facts, let them loiter a while among the dear il- 
lusions. The Happy Valley of Childhood is but nar- 
row, where the golden water babbles to the talking 
bird and the singing tree ; where the sun always shines 
and the years are summers. They who adjust the load 
that presses so heavily on the springs of life have much 
to account for.” 

Willie said that under our present system children’s 
lives were made wretched by e the indifference of so- 
ciety, which was absorbed in chasing the nimble dollar. 
Children were either given no care or they were turned 
over to the care of schools, where they were weakened 
physically by severe discipline and turned out in our 
disorganized society, where the standard is 

"Gel place and wealth, if possible, with grace; 

If not, by any means get wealth and place.” 

Our citizens work as earnestly to attain this end 
through various schemes as the gamblers at Monte 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


7 1 


Carlo play by various systems to win. As at the great 
gambling resorts, the players find that the bank wins 
most of the money, so in the United States, our bank- 
ing system, founded on a gambling scheme, which 
fosters monopolization and trusts, absorbs the money 
of the people and causes financial panics, which cause 
agonizing suffering for our working people and an 
unbearable strain for our business men. 

Marcella thought that our children should be care- 
fully developed physically and mentally to perform the 
mission God sent them into the world to accomplish; 
that they should be trained faithfully to do the work 
nearest to hand, remembering 

“Honor and shame from no condition rise; 

Act well your part; there all the honor lies.” 

and that all great deeds are built of small efforts, upon 
a foundation of labor. 

Willie said that with all our educational advantages 
we produced no men like the fathers of the republic; 

that Lincoln, as well as most of our successful busi- 

ness men, derived their strength from close commune 
with nature. To get the best results out of our educa- 
tional system we must base it as closely as possible 
on nature, as 

“One impulse from a vernal wood 
Can teach you more of man, 

Of moral, evil and of good 

Than all the sages can.” 


72 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


To bring all the intelligence to bear on the question 
of establishing honest government and educational 
and commercial systems adapted to the present needs 
of the people, Willie and Marcella believed our citi- 
zens must form organizations in every township in 
the counties and every ward in the cities, which would 
be united to state and’ national organizations. 

During the year the Sisters of Charity lost their 
revered superioress, Mother Euphemia, and for this 
reason commencement exercises were dispensed with. 
When school closed for the summer vacation, in the 
picturesque station connected with the academy, 
among the pupils waiting to take the train to carry 
them homeward were Willie and Marcella. As Mar- 
cella’s train came first, Willie’s parting injunction to 
her was: “You are going to meet your uncle in the 
city of Baltimore, where the first blood was shed in 
a riot between the citizens and the soldiers of Massa- 
chusetts, who were hurrying to defend our national 
capital in the last terrible crisis which overtook our 
country. Do not let any pleasures divert you from 
bringing all your energy to bear upon our industrial 
problem, on the intelligent solution of which depends 
the welfare of every man, woman and child in our na- 
tion. When the magnitude of the task wearies you, 
Marcella, remember the suffering and misery of all the 
little children in the slums of our cities and spare no 
effort to change this terribly unjust condition.” 


CHAPTER VII. 

DETROIT. 

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds 
Admit impediments; Love is not love 
Which alters when it alteration finds.” 

— Shakespeare. 

Marcella, accompanied by school friends who lived 
in Washington. City and Baltimore, was cordially re- 
ceived by her uncle, who met her upon her arrival in 
the latter city. Captain Turtle took her to his father’s 
home in Pittsfield, Mass., where she met her aunt, who 
had made all arrangements for accompanying her to 
the White Mountains, where the summer months were 
delightfully passed. Hoping to divert her mind from 
social questions, wherein Marcella had become deeply 
interested, her aunt advised against a return to board- 
ing school, and accordingly it was arranged that Mar- 
cella should journey to Marshalltown, Iowa, there to 
stay with her father, with Rebecca Nicholson, who had 
recently graduated from Beechcroft, as her guest. 

Shortly after Marcella and Rebecca had arranged 
themselves in their new surroundings, they were fur- 
ther gratified by a visit from Elbert Foster, Marcella’s 
cousin, who was en route to his home in Columbus 
from an extended trip through Australia. His visit 
was not without its serious side, since out of it grew a 
73 


74 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


contract, “for better or worse/’ that involved the future 
of two lives. Elbert and Rebecca became attached to 
each other and before his visit came to a close they 
had plighted their troth and the wedding was arranged 
to take place the following Christmas Eve at the Rus- 
sell House in Detroit. There was a speedy agreement 
against a long engagement, as Elbert was perfecting 
arrangements to go into the carriage business at 
Omaha in the spring, against which time he hoped to 
so arrange his affairs as to give his unrestricted efforts 
to bread-winning. 

Rebecca’s father, Prof. Oliver Nicholson, who had 
been a member of the faculty of Knoxville University, 
was residing at the Russell House in Detroit, prelimi- 
nary to taking up new duties in the University of 
Michigan, and after being made familiar with all the 
facts gave ready adhesion to the plans of his daughter 
for the future. Elbert’s recent visit to the antipodes 
had been the outgrowth of a theatrical venture with 
his college chum at Princeton, Ralph Lower, with 
whom, the reader will remember, the young ladies had 
been made acquainted by Lucius Polk, on the train on 
route home to Beechcroft from the Democratic rally 
at Nashville, when President Cleveland was elected. 
Elbert acquainted Ralph with the good fortune that 
had come to him, and though the latter was busy ar- 
ranging his affairs preparatory to taking up news- 
paper work in Chicago, he agreed to come to his sup- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


75 


port as “best man” when the nuptial knot was to be 
tied. The preparatory season was to be brief and 
those most deeply interested set about getting their af- 
fairs in order. From the time of her mother’s death, 
when she was but five years old, Rebecca had been un- 
der the care of her aunt, Mrs. Estes, until the completion 
of her school course the previous June, and what more 
natural, therefore, than that she should journey to 
Beechcroft to advise with Mrs. Estes concerning her 
approaching marriage ? Elbert so arranged his affairs 
as to feel the need of a business trip to Tennessee, 
hence it would have been strange indeed if he had not 
found it convenient to visit Beechcroft while Rebecca 
was there. While there he met Lucius Polk, whose 
interest in the affair moved Elbert to invite him to as- 
sist at the ceremony at Detroit, which invitation 
Lucius readily accepted. Rebecca, no less attentive 
to the needs of the great occasion, had chosen Marcella 
as her maid of honor and a classmate at Beechcroft, 
Alice Rhea, as bridesmaid. 

On Christmas Eve the parlors of the Russell Plouse 
were handsomely festooned with holly wreaths and 
Christmas flowers, for the interesting event that was 
to take place. Promptly at eight o’clock, to the slow 
measure of the Lohengrin Wedding March, Elbert 
Foster, with his best man, Ralph Lower, took his posi- 
tion under a bower of roses, where he was joined by 
Rebecca, who had advanced from a reception room, 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


76 

leaning upon the arm of her father, and preceded by 
Marcella as maid of honor, followed by Alice Rhea as 
bridesmaid. According to the Episcopal ritual, the 
vows were pledged that were to unite these two young 
people for life. Rebecca, who was very graceful, with 
a beautiful complexion, liquid brown eyes and chestnut 
hair, made a strikingly handsome appearance in a 
gown of ivory satin, trimmed with chiffon and carry- 
ing white roses. Marcella and Alice carried La France 
loses. The former looked pretty in pink silk muslin 
over pink taffeta, while the latter, a dainty miss with 
expressive gray eyes and hair that curled naturally, 
was charming in white silk muslin. 

After the wedding supper had been served Ralph 
Lower, who had only arrived in Detroit a few hours 
preceding the ceremony, invited Marcella to accom- 
pany him to the lobby, where the orchestra was sta- 
tioned. There seats were found among the palms and 
there was a renewal of an acquaintance so auspiciously 
begun in the southland. In recalling recent observa- 
tions Marcella said there seemed to be something in 
the make-up of the average Ohioan to make of him or 
her a bird of passage, ever desirous of a change. She 
had been content with the variety afforded in her own 
country, while he had been seeking knowledge on the 
other side of the world in one of Queen Victoria’s 
possessions. To her mind it was a little singular that 
Ralph, who came of a newspaper family, should have 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


77 


taken to the theatrical profession. Ralph said his year’s 
experience in Melbourne had not been wholly un- 
profitable in an educational sense, but he had been re- 
joiced to reach his native country again, and no more 
gladsome sight had ever met his eyes than when the 
returning ship entered the Golden Gate. What he 
saw was America, and he realized as never before how 
glorious a country it was. Now he was prepared to 
follow the family bent and was to be associated with 
the Chicago Tribune, which he esteemed a privilege. 

Marcella congratulated him upon his prospective 
newspaper connection, saying that there were two 
American editors whom she had elevated to a pinnacle 
in her esteem, one being Henry Watterson of the 
Louisville Courier-Journal and the other Joseph 
Medill of the Chicago Tribune, and under the tutelage 
of either a conscientious person could not go far astray. 
She said : “Mr. Watterson is so honest, so fearless and 
earnest in his efforts to attain what he believes to be 
right. He has the characteristic which is the strongest 
indication of good judgment, that is a disposition to 
submit to circumstances as they exist, believing our 
nation, under God’s guidance, will be safely piloted 
through threatening storms by the twin stars, Duty and 
Destiny. I always picture Mr. Watterson as offering 
to hold Mr. Lincoln’s hat, while the latter made his 
first inaugural address, that earnest plea for the mainte- 
nance of the Union, saying to those who would dis- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


78 

rupt it: ‘You have no oath registered in heaven to 
destroy the government, while I shall have sworn the 
most solemn oath to “preserve, protect and defend it.” * 
Though Mr. Watterson was anticipated in his service 
to the great chieftain by Judge Douglas, the spirit of 
the man was demonstrated. 

“To Mr. Medill I believe our country is under 
greater obligations than we realize, for it was largely to 
his foresight in arranging the convention and to the 
support of the Chicago Tribune, that we owe the first 
nomination of Lincoln. In the second campaign, when 
Lincoln remarked in his droll fashion, that ‘it was not 
safe to swop horses in crossing a stream,’ it was again 
the foresight of Mr. Medill that tended most materially 
to the reelection of Mr. Lincoln, for it was he who con- 
ceived the idea, while spending his summer vacation 
in the woods of Minnesota, of extending the privilege 
of the ballot to the soldiers in the' field, and what more 
natural than that the ‘boys in blue’ should vote en 
masse in support of their great leader, who never 
omitted an opportunity to testify his deep love for 
them ? I favor the suggestion of Mr. Medill of placing 
a limit upon presidential aspirations, by making the 
term six years and placing a bar to reelection. It 
would be beneficial in many ways, not the least im- 
portant of which would be to render less frequent the 
disturbances to business that always attend upon a na- 
tional campaign. But, to get nearer home and more 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


79 


nearly personal, you have not told me how you en- 
joyed your antipodean trip, concerning which I have 
heard little, as Elbert has been so engrossed with af- 
fairs of the heart, that he has found little worth talking 
about but Rebecca. I always knew she was a very de- 
lightful girl, but I never had any idea of her manifold 
charms until I gave Elbert an opportunity to enumer- 
ate them. She is absolutely perfect, he says, and un- 
der the circumstances what else could he say?” 

“She is a very charming girl,” said Ralph, “and El- 
bert is a stanch fellow, true to the core, and, barring 
the unexpected, they should float down the stream of 
life, wafted only by the gentlest breezes and avoiding 
the rocks and shoals that make wreckage of so many 
hopes. We cannot unveil the future, but we can hope 
that in their career the sunshine will predominate over 
the shadow. But about matters more nearly personal, 
Melbourne is the capital of Victoria and the largest 
city in Australia. Entering from the sea, you are not 
favorably impressed, as the ground is low and sandy 
and covered with factories. Nine miles from the 
mouth of the Yarra-Yarra River lies Melbourne in a 
valley with her extremities extending over two hills, 
and the prospect is a very agreeable one to the ob- 
server. The houses of Parliament and other public 
structures are architecturally fine, and hold command- 
ing positions. The gold discoveries near Melbourne 
attracted a large number of English people, who be- 


8o 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


came residents of the city, and by their thrift and pro- 
gressiveness have made of it a most worthy metropolis. 
The streets are broad and well macadamized — ” 

“Much nicer, I should fancy,” suggested Marcella, 
“and much more humane than our hard and unyield- 
ing ones, so destructive to the feet of the horses.” 

“I see,” said Ralph, “that you still have an eye to 
the public welfare, and are thoughtful of others.” 

“I try to be. I try to feel that we all have a mission 
in the world, and in my small, weak way, I’m going to 
do my share toward bettering the condition of those 
less fortunate than myself. I am weak ; the world is 
large and I am but an atom — ” 

“But a grain of sand on the shore of the ocean of 
time.” 

“Yes, somewhere about that size, but who knows but 
I may be the grain of sand that will find its way into 
the intricate mechanism of some great evil, causing it 
to be less fruitful of bad results, and, perhaps, in time 
occasioning its total destruction.” 

“It is a very huge mission for an atom, but others 
have been similarly actuated and not all have lived their 
lives in vain, in the effort to be of some account in the 
world, of some help to their fellow man. I wish you 
well, I’m sure, in whatever you may undertake, and 
you will have with you, at all times, the unspoken sym- 
pathy of all good people.” 

“In so far as I am able to read the signs of the times, 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


8l 


I feel that a serious storm is brewing in our national 
existence. I may not be able to ward it off, or miti- 
gate the evils that will spring from it, but, seeing 
its approach, as I do, I feel that I would be recreant 
to myself and to my God if I sat supinely by and 
neither said nor did anything. Although the coun- 
try has been very prosperous, anyone who feels for the 
overburdened workingman and takes an interest in the 
farmers — who are the foundation of society — must 
realize that there are currents which are carrying our 
large commercial institutions upon the rocks and 
shoals. To-day, at lunch, Uncle Charles, in speaking 
about his phenomenal business success within the past 
fifteen years, with which you are in a measure familiar, 
wherein, from a repair shop, he has built up the larg- 
est carriage factory in the world, said that when he 
found his enterprise was developing he set a stake, and 
when he reached that point he set the stake further on. 
In 1887 the high-water mark in his business was 
reached, for the factory could not supply the orders for 
its vehicles. I believe that a reaction is approaching 
and that Uncle Charles will be wise if he retrenches and 
lets the exhaustless energy that has carried him to 
such wonderful success, accumulate to meet the reac- 
tion that, in my judgment, is to overwhelm commerce 
within the present decade. Business will be paralyzed 
by the large corporations and monopolies that are 
cutting the ground from under the producing classes, 
6 


82 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


who, by the way, we must not forget are also the con- 
sumers. When the reaction sets in from overproduc- 
tion and concentration, the country is going to ex- 
perience a terrible strain.” 

“I might say to you, ‘why not enjoy the present?’ 
and let the future take care of itself. You would have 
eminent example therefor.” 

“I do enjoy the present and the many pleasures kind 
fate affords me, as well as anyone I know of, but I 
am so constituted that I cannot but feel that while I 
am basking in the sunshine of prosperity others are 
suffering, others are downtrodden throug J h no fault of 
their own, and a sense of soul-guiltiness sometimes 
sweeps through me as I realize the wide gulf there is 
between my condition and their own. 

‘Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. 

Where wealth accumulates and men decay.’ 

“God’s law and natural law decree that everyone 
whom the earth produces must have a fair opportunity 
to earn his living by the sweat of his brow. Our 
government is founded on this law, and, as a rule, peo- 
ple are disposed to be just and even generous. Before 
the close of the nineteenth century I believe the vast 
majority of our people will have reached that point 
in the horizon of life where they will realize that 
their own best security against ‘the slings and ar- 
rows of outrageous fortune,’ is to join in a brother- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 83 

hood, making the concern of one the concern of all, 
with justice and humanity as their watchword.” 

“Our mutual friend, Lucius Polk, was in a confiding 
humor this evening and told me that you were averse 
to reciprocity.” 

“I don’t think I understand you,” said Marcella. 

“You are not blamable on that account. But, to 
make my meaning more clear, he said he had sug- 
gested that since your cousin Elbert had appropriated 
unto himself one of Tennessee’s most charming daugh- 
ters, it would be no more than proper that you should 
equalize matters and in your own proper person be a 
peace offering unto the South, he to be the custodian.” 

“Oh, I understand you now.” 

“Well, I’m glad to have been able to make myself 
clear upon this subject, and I hope without offense.” 

“None in the least, I assure you. My father had 
other views concerning his well-beloved daughter, and 
the latter was not averse to subscribing to those views. 
I love Tennessee beyond the power of words to ex- 
press, for it furnishes some of the most agreeable mem- 
ories of my life, and I admire Mr. Polk for the many 
very estimable qualities I have discovered in him, but 
the bent of my mind does not incline me to venture 
within the domain we have been outlining. As I have 
already said to you, I want to be of some use in the 
world, of some use to the world at large. My aspira- 
tions are high, you see, too high, you may think, but 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


84 

while I should respect your opinion, it would not deter 
me in going forward according to my own lights.” 

“I shall not offer you an opinion, and more especially 
since you have indicated how effective it would be. 
But, really, I sympathize with your views. I haven’t 
your unselfishness. I grieve for ‘man’s inhumanity to 
man’ and would rejoice to see the grasping fellows 
compelled to let go their hold. In such way as occa- 
sion may offer I shall make apparent my sentiments, 
and in whatever work you may undertake along the 
same lines, you will have my deepest sympathy and my 
willing cooperation, should you find that I can be of 
assistance to you.” 

“I felt assured that I could count upon you,” said 
Marcella. “My thoughts have been elsewhere than 
upon changes in my own personal life. Attending upon 
marriage are very grave responsibilities, only to be 
undertaken after a careful weighing of the conditions 
that precede it. Matrimony presupposes an affinity be- 
tween the contracting parties. How frequent is the un- 
fitness of parties for the ties they assume we have 
record pf in the divorce courts. A union of hearts is 
eminently proper, of course, but — ” v 

“That is not the only combination essential, you 
think ?” 

“Precisely. In matrimony, let love play its part, but 
it should not occupy the stage to the exclusion of 
everything else. That is too often the case. An in- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 85 

fusion of good sense, forbearance, charity for short- 
comings, of which we all have our share, all these 
things are essential to success in matrimony, I fancy. 
I speak from the point of observation of the man up 
the tree, not from experience, but the unprejudiced ob- 
server sometimes knows more of an affair than the 
direct participant. The welfare of the nation is based 
upon the hearthstones of happy homes, and happy 
homes are the outcome of judicious marriages. So 
many children are denied the proper training, being 
deprived by uncontrollable circumstances of parental 
care. I think less attention should be paid to intellec- 
tual development and more effort expended upon 
physical and moral training. This would equip every 
boy and girl for the battle of life, and with the latter 
our nation should have something to do, lending its 
enormous facilities for bringing out the best qualities 
with which the youth of the land are endowed by their 
Creator. This would evolve a new citizenship, higher 
and nobler in its aims and aspirations and the golden 
calf, as an object of worship, would fall into a subordi- 
nate place. The American citizenship would com- 
mand more regard than did the citizenship of the 
Romans when Paul preached the great doctrine of 
Christianity, upon which this strong, true Christian 
American citizenship must be based. I have not 
thought that I could assume the duties of a home and 
be faithful thereto, when realizing that the comforts by 


86 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


which I was surrounded were to be credited largely to 
fortuity — to opportunity and to the ability to sieze op- 
portunity and make it productive — and so many of my 
fellow creatures were without the comforts of life. I 
would always hear the voice from on high calling, 
‘Where is Abel?’ Would I not be a guilty Cain if I 
absorbed more than my share, while helpless women 
and poor little children were in want of the needfuls to 
hold soul and body together? What hope for them on 
this side of the grave, if all put aside considerations 
of humanity and are absorbed only in the chase 
for the almighty dollar? I do not wish to be un- 
derstood as deprecating the pursuit of wealth, but 
to make it the occasion for early striving and 
late striving, the incentive to forgetfulness of all the 
higher obligations that are laid upon man by his 
Creator, the motive power of life, then I say it is de- 
grading to the soul, for it has a narcotizing effect upon 
every good impulse. I feel that those who live in ease, 
unthoughtful of their fellow men ; those whom we em- 
power to frame and administer our laws and those 
whom we select to teach us by divine light the path we 
should tread in our jonrney through life, have much 
upon their consciences, for to them is due the unfair, 
and with equal propriety I may say the appalling con- 
dition that exists. Such manifest neglect of the plain 
duties that are imposed upon them by their Creator, is 
a practical denial of the sovereignty of God. Is it a 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


87 


greater crime for the burglar to rob a bank than for 
society to rob labor of its just dues and cramp it within 
the narrowest confines of a beggarly existence? It 
does not appear so to me. Is it any more villainous a 
consummation for the unfeeling desperado to plunge a 
knife through the throbbing heart of a helpless victim 
than it is for the money power to seize the reins of 
government and so manipulate them as to deal out 
despair and death to countless thousands? Is it fair 
for speculators to “corner” the food market, when the 
result to the millions of consumers is suffering? 

“In school, in Maryland last year, I met Willie Gam- 
bill, a Virginia girl, who was as much interested in 
these questions as I am, and we have agreed between 
ourselves that, though weak, we will work unceasingly 
to amend conditions and make them fairer for all, and 
in our work of amelioration it is our purpose to spare no 
effort to improve the conditions that now surround child 
life. We would like to make the little ones happy, for, 
whatever the circumstances of their parents, if you can 
keep them flooded with some of God’s sunshine, their 
morals will need less looking after and it is fairly pre- 
sumable that they will grow up good men and women. 
They will at least have the opportunity to do so, some- 
thing the vast majority are now denied.” 

“Well, Miss Marcella, I have been much edified by 
hearing your views,” said Ralph, “and I feel honored 
by your statement of them. They are broad, compre- 


88 


TIIC CRUCIAL TEST. 


hensive, too much so, the general verdict will be, to 
be successfully carried out in any manner having 
method to it. But I don’t read you aright if you are 
readily discouraged. Rome wasn’t built in a day, we 
are told, and God moves in a mysterious way, con- 
founding the wise by using instrumentalities that they 
would not have chosen. It is a physical fact that the 
dropping of water upon a stone will wear the latter 
away, and your quiet efforts for the amelioration of 
conditions that are depressing to humanity may ac- 
complish more than your incredulous well-wishers now 
think possible. I wish I could help you, for I sub- 
scribe to the truth of all you have said, and should 
occasion arise that you need my services, you have but 
to intimate it and I will place myself at your disposal. 
I should be glad to be associated with yourself and 
Miss Gambill in so creditable a work and I know we 
would labor to bring about returns that would be bene- 
ficial to those whom we seek to aid.” 

“I shall bear your offer in mind, and may call upon 
you sooner than you anticipate. But here comes our 
bride.” 

“Ah, here you are,” said Rebecca, “and by the 
rather solemn look upon your faces, I conclude Mar- 
cella has been distributing tracts descriptive of the 
evils of society, and upon my wedding day, too. Child, 
you should entertain only happy thoughts on this fes- 
tive occasion.” 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


89 

“We’ve not been especially solemn,” responded Mar- 
cella, “and such tracts as I have sown have not been 
in vain, for I’ve secured a convert. Haven’t I, Mr. 
Lower?” 

“Not a convert, perhaps, for there are none, with the 
hardihood to deny the truth of what Miss Marcella 
points out, but I’ve enlisted, and belong to the pro- 
visional corps. If she thinks I can be of service to her 
she is to call upon me. I’ve subscribed to the articles 
of war and am a regular recruit.” 

“Well, you will not be called upon for immediate 
service,” said Rebecca, “for Marcella, as perhaps she 
has told you, is to join us in Omaha and make her 
home with us, after we have returned from a trip 
through the East. She being your corps commander, 
what more natural than that you should find it neces- 
sary to visit Omaha occasionally, to consult her.” 

“I don’t see anything inappropriate in that. Do you, 
Mr. Lower?” asked Marcella. 

“On the contrary,” said Ralph, “I feel that I would 
become deficient in a proper knowledge of the tactics 
if I did not consult the fountain head occasionally, by 
reason of which I may be expected to infest the ‘Gate 
City’ at intervals.” 

“Come when you will and remain as long as you 
can, and I assure you in advance that there will always 
be a warm welcome awaiting you from Elbert and 


go THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

“Oh, Marcella will be just as glad to see you as we 
will,” said Rebecca. “Won’t you, Marcella?” 

“I think I will. Just try me and see.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 

OMAHA. 

“Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, 

An humble and a contrite heart. 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 

Lest we forget — lest we forget.” 

— Recessional. 

It was the middle of February and old Boreas was 
holding high carnival throughout the West, laying his 
behests upon all, the rich, the poor ; those equipped 
to defy climatic rigor and those scantily clad. The 
country was blizzard swept during the winter of 1888, 
and no acts of heroism performed during those trying 
times were more widely commended or commented 
upon than those performed by the school teachers of 
Nebraska in protecting and preserving the lives of 
their charges, at their own imminent peril, when over- 
whelmed by these terrible visitations. It was during 
this rigorous season that Elbert Foster and his young 
bride arrived in Omaha, and the warmth of welcome 
that met them from Marcella and her father, who had 
preceded them to the Nebraska metropolis, made 
amends, in no small measure, for the frigidity of the 
weather. They greeted them at the depot, a barnlike 
structure, which was to be replaced by a handsome edi- 
fice when Jay Gould got through quarreling with the 
Rock Island people and those of other roads over the 

91 


the: crucial test. 


92 

right-of-way across the bridge between Omaha and 
Council Bluffs, owned by the Union Pacific. 

Rebecca was tired and not inclined to be favorably 
impressed with her new surroundings, after her pleas- 
ant trip through the East, rendered specially attrac- 
tive by the joyous conditions under which it was made. 
Unfinished blocks all over the business section and in- 
complete structures in the residence portion told the 
tale of the recent boom, and with its prevailing state of 
unreadiness, made Rebecca conclude that Omaha 
would not be a pleasant place in which to reside. 

Elbert applied himself to the work of securing a 
place for his carriage repository without loss of time, 
but the severity of the weather compelled Rebecca and 
Marcella to defer house hunting, and they found 
amusement in watching the scenes in the office of the 
Paxton, from the balcony that led off from the parlor 
corridor of the hotel. As Elbert made the acquaint- 
ance of the business men he found opportunity to in- 
troduce Rebecca and Marcella to some of his new- 
found friends, whom they found to be people of culture 
and most cordial to the new-comers, though a major- 
ity of the residents had not lived in Omaha to exceed 
five years, during which period the city had developed 
so rapidly and the wildest speculation in real estate had 
occurred. 

There was evidence that the reaction had com- 
menced, but the people were hopeful and believed that 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


93 

the boom would continue or return soon. Interesting- 
stories were told of C. E. Mayne and other manipula- 
tors, who had made large fortunes suddenly, during the 
excitement, and as suddenly squandered them. The 
boom, like religion and politics, was something which 
no two could see in precisely the same light, and none 
could clearly comprehend, in this case, beyond the fact 
that it gave dealers an opportunity to sell real estate 
at inflated prices. 

“ ‘Won’t you come into my parlor?’ 

Said the spider to the fly.” 

The prevailing conditions suggested the old couplet 
to the unembarrassed observer. The buyer, who had 
been caught, devoted his attention to finding a victim 
upon whom to unload, at a profit, if possible ; at a loss, 
if necessary, for “needs must whom the devil drives.” 

Forgetting the law of cause and effect, instead of 
realizing the situation, the people hoped for a contin- 
uance of this unnatural condition. The whole com- 
mercial structure rested upon a false foundation. The 
strain was very perceptible, but the people were plucky 
and hopeful and bore the burden that reaction causes 
without murmuring. Everyone showed a pleasant 
front, but silently, during the seven succeeding years, 
one by one, many who had been prominent in the busi- 
ness and social circles of Omaha, fell by the wayside, 
in a commercial sense, overcome by their fierce strug- 
gle against reaction. 


94 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


In April the weather had so subdued its acerbity that 
Rebecca and Marcella went in search of the much-de- 
sired home, only to find, after painstaking effort, that 
the people had been flocking into Omaha more rapidly 
than accommodations had been provided for them and 
that desirable homes were at a premium. They perse- 
vered in their efforts, however, and after a month of 
unremitting toil were fortunate in securing a small cot- 
tage on Georgia avenue, near Leavenworth street. 
During this interesting proceeding Marcella discov- 
ered some of the causes responsible for the rapid de- 
velopment of Omaha. One afternoon, while driving 
with Mrs. John Grossman, the wife of a prominent 
local attorney, whom they had met at the Paxton, they 
passed a graders’ camp. Mrs. Grossman remarked 
that the work of grading the city would soon be com- 
pleted, and when it was, the city would feel the effects, 
as through the graders’ large sums of money had been 
put into circulation. It seemed so strange that those 
gypsy appearing men should have played so important 
a part in the development of Omaha, not alone by their 
brawn, but by their influence upon the circulating 
medium. Later President Hamilton of the United 
States Bank related how City Engineer Rosewater had 
insisted upon cutting very deep grades, upon leveling 
the streets and making the city beautiful, and residents 
who opposed the work had been made rich thereby. 
Then Marcella understood that the business men, the 


TIIE CRUCIAL TEST. 


95 


boomers and the promoters were the beneficiaries and 
that the money expended by the city, under the super- 
vision of Engineer Rosewater, to the laborers, had kept 
up the high tide of prosperity, and with the collapse of 
the boom, she realized that it would not return until 
some other large project was inaugurated that would 
give employment to labor. 

That manufacturers do not contribute the same 
amount of prosperity as labor on public improvements 
is most evident, as labor must consume the manufac- 
tured product at a higher price than the manufacturer 
pays labor. Without this labor consumption is cur- 
tailed. If speculation on the results produced by la- 
bor’s sweat was prohibited by law and the prohibition 
was made effective, and if necessary public improve- 
ments were honestly and intelligently carried on 
throughout the land, all places would enjoy pros- 
perity. 

When Rebecca, assisted by Marcella, had completed 
the arrangements of their cozy home, Elbert piloted 
them over the territory which Omaha has since shown 
her ability to develop into a most beautiful and inter- 
esting city. The heart of the city was at Sixteenth and 
Farman streets, with the Chamber of Commerce on 
one corner. Across the street was the handsome Pax- 
ton Block, for one room in which Max Mayer paid 
$12,000 a year rent. On an opposite corner was the 
Bank of Commerce, an elegant structure. On the 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


96 

north Omaha extended out Sixteenth street beyond the 
Fort, seven miles to Florence. In the opposite direc- 
tion the city had the opportunity to extend nine miles 
to South Omaha, where the large packing houses were 
located. On the east the city reached to the Missouri 
River, which was united to Council Bluffs by two 
bridges, one for steam traffic and the other for electric 
cars. On the west the city extended a distance of five 
miles to Dundee Place. West Farman street and the 
streets leading off were the most desirable residence 
portions of the city. 

There were many handsome office buildings com- 
pleted and others in course of erection. The one Re- 
becca and Marcella admired the most was the Bee 
building, the finest newspaper office in the world, and 
for a verity, the white marble court of this structure 
was an altogether lovely creation. It is said, and very 
justly too, that Omaha is greatly indebted to the ex- 
haustless energy and the cultivated architectural taste 
of Editor Rosewater of the Bee, for her substantial 
development and her manifold architectural attrac- 
tions. 

There was a great deal of paving to be done, which 
gave employment to the wage-worker and kept money 
in circulation. Building was continued until there 
were more places of business and residences than there 
were people to occupy them. People put their money 
freely into circulation — those who had any — and the 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


97 


surrounding country was a support to the city until 
the drouth came. But gradually the city felt the pres- 
sure of the business depression that had been coming 
on, though there was no note of complaint. The only 
time Omaha showed her terror of approaching calam- 
ity was when the last stand was made in Nebraska to 
effect prohibition. 

The people had all been doing business on a fall- 
ing market from the time of the Civil War, when the 
large amount of money put in circulation by that grave 
national calamity caused commercial prosperity. But 
this money was rapidly absorbed from the soldiers by 
the corporations and the money trusts, known as our 
national banking system, which the war developed. 
Then class legislation by the Republican party com- 
menced with the building of the Union Pacific Rail- 
way. In an article on “Four National Conventions,” 
in Scribner’s Magazine of February, 1899, Senator 
Hoar of Massachusetts says, in referring to the build- 
ing of this railroad : “While the nation was rejoicing 
in the completion of this great work the unanimous 
reports of three committees of Congress — two in the 
House and one in the Senate — were that every step in 
the mighty enterprise had been taken in fraud.” The 
building of the Union Pacific gave employment to a 
vast army of men and while the work was in progress 
there was prosperity. The completion of the road was 
followed by natural results, when our unsystematized 
7 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


98 

commercial basis is considered, hard times and then 
the panic of ’73. 

The capitalists immediately absorbed the money that 
had been loaned them by the Government and which 
they had put in circulation by building the Union 
Pacific. Their method of absorption was bv exorbitant 
freight and passenger rates and by entering into direct 
competition with the tillers of the soil. The enor- 
mous area of the public domain given to these capital- 
ists by the government, being alternate sections along 
the line of the Union Pacific, was placed under cultiva- 
tion at one time. The virgin soil was prolific and the 
yield was enormous. Owning the railroad, the mem- 
bers of the corporation could practically ship their pro- 
duce free, and sell large quantities upon a small mar- 
gin, aggregating, however, a large profit. This con- 
dition brought the cost of produce below the cost of 
production for the farmers of the East, who were un- 
der the expense of building fences, buying fertilizers 
and paying freights upon the output of their small 
fields. 

When the work upon the railroad was completed 
large numbers of the working men found their way 
back East and demoralized the labor market, compel- 
ling labor to divide up the work and demand the eight- 
hour day. This condition caused hard times, but when 
the bottom was about to drop entirely out, thereby 
carrying everybody down, an unnatural reaction came, 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


99 


in 1877, during the Hayes administration. Capital 
and labor were involved in deep trouble and had not 
Tilden been counted out the opposition no doubt would 
have attributed prevailing evils to Democratic suc- 
cess. Pending troubles were greatly relieved by a total 
failure of crops abroad, which caused the largest ex- 
port of grain this country has ever, known, and pour- 
ing into the avenues of trade vast sums of money. 
This made a return of national prosperity. 

In 1855, when capital had again absorbed the larg- 
est portion of our medium of exchange, causing hard 
times, English syndicates began buying enormous 
quantities of American securities, and this was one of 
the causes of the booms in Omaha, Kansas City, Min- 
neapolis and throughout the whole country. While 
the money was coming in everyone could sail on the 
tide which leads to success. When the revenues re- 
ceded to England we were landed on the sands of hard 
times again. The business men and bankers of Ne- 
braska did not seem to remember the law of cause and 
effect and put the entire blame of reaction from un- 
natural conditions upon prohibition, which had gained 
quite a foothold in the country, especially in Iowa, 
where the people had level heads and. were proof 
against the boom fever, and, not being affected by 
stimulants, preferred natural development. The peo- 
ple of Nebraska did not seem to realize that prohibi- 
tion, by opposing public sentiment to the use of liquor, 


IOO 


Tim CRUCIAL TEST. 


would tend to lessen the injurious treating habit, pre- 
vent young men from becoming addicted to the use of 
intoxicants, would keep men steady and reserve their 
money from unwholesome channels and would equip 
the people to weather any storm. The people of Ne- 
braska seemed to think that prohibition would cause 
the markets to fall faster. Every influence was brought 
to bear to prevent the enactment of a prohibitive law. 

While Marcella was interestedly studying the phases 
of the position of Nebraska on the liquor question, fate 
was preparing an opportunity for her to view the ques- 
tion from the prohibition standpoint. At this time a 
necessary change in his father’s business caused Elbert 
to remove to Des Moines. Marcella had so much en- 
joyed the pleasure of making her home with Rebecca 
that she gladly accepted an invitation to continue the 
association in Des Moines. 


CHAPTER IX. 


WORLD’S FAIR. 

“Whene’er I take my walks abroad, 

How many poor I see: 

What shall I render to my God 
For all His gifts to me?” 

— Watts. 

It was the noon hour; the day, the Fourth of July; 
the place, the great “White City,” upon whose thor- 
oughfares and within whose veritable palaces were as- 
sembled people of all nations. Near the entrance to the 
“Midway” and closely contiguous to the Woman’s 
Building, that monument to feminine enterprise and 
artistic taste, Elbert Foster, accompanied by his wife, 
Marcella Allen and her Virginia school friend, Willie 
Gambill, met by appointment Ralph Lower, with his 
guests, Lucius Polk and his young bride, Alice Rhea 
Polk, and George Dubois, who was a college friend of 
both Ralph and Elbert. It was only by accurately de- 
scribing in advance the proposed meeting place that 
appointments could be kept, but fortunately in this case 
no untoward circumstance obtruded, and the happy 
party assembled as agreed upon. As Ralph came for- 
ward with his companions, he made their presence 
known to the others by saying: “What stronger indi- 
cation do you want of the advantages of a union than 
are presented in our own persons? Here we are, eight 

IOI 


102 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


of us, bound together in bonds of friendship, represent- 
ing in equal numerical strength the North and the 
South, gathered together to celebrate the nation’s natal 
day, amid surroundings agreeable to the eye and emi- 
nently suggestive of our national genius and enter- 
prise. The bondage is a delightful one to me and I 
would not break the shackles — well, not for all the 
wealth of gold and jewels that are so lavishly displayed 
elsewhere upon these grounds.” 

After pleasant greetings all around, the party entered 
the Woman’s Building and took position in the long 
line of those who were desirous of availing themselves 
of the elevator for a trip to the roof, where it was pos- 
sible to procure a palatable lunch and at the same time 
secure a most admirable view of the surroundings. 
The reward of patience was theirs and in due season 
they were comfortably seated around a table, all attest- 
ing their enjoyment of the surroundings. Ralph as- 
sumed responsibility for the viands that were needed to 
satisfy the appetites of the party, all of which were 
keenly upon edge, and a very merry time they had in 
discussing the edibles. They then sought to encom- 
pass the countless attractions of this unexampled 
world’s exhibit, and, as did everybody else, found the 
task an interminable one, requiring a physical vigor 
that few possessed. The noise, the bright colors, the 
strange people, the rare architectural beauties, the 
countless objects of art, the vast aggregation of utili- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


103 


ties, all went to make up an exhibition no mind could 
fathom, however painstaking and industrious its owner. 
Only the Infinite could survey it and measure its 
grandeur and do justice to all. 

As they stopped to rest after a vigorous attempt to 
“do” the Transportation Building, Elbert asked Mrs. 
Polk how she had been impressed with the marvel of 
western cities, Chicago. She confessed to being in 
somewhat of a daze, all being so new and strange. “I 
think the noise and bustle and ‘hustle’ of this great city 
have frightened my wife,” said Lucius. “Through the 
kindness of Ralph, we have secured temporary quar- 
ters at the Auditorium, and though we enjoy the loca- 
tion and have a delightful view of Lake Michigan from 
our windows, we will transfer ourselves to the Chicago 
Beach Hotel as soon as the rooms we have engaged 
are vacated. There Alice will have the daily compan- 
ionship of Rebecca and Marcella to make her less ap- 
prehensive of this great blustering city, and we will 
have easier access to the fair grounds. My wife has a 
great love of music and anticipates much pleasure from 
the concerts at the fair.” 

Rebecca suggested that Alice visit her at Des Moines 
when they had exhausted their strength at sight-see- 
ing, the recuperative powers of which she was ready 
to vouch for. Alice fell in with the proposition readily. 
From Marcella she had heard of the attractive qualities 
of Rebecca’s little daughter Catharine, who would 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


I04 

serve as an additional incentive to a visit. Lucius in- 
terposed no objection. He had made his plans, which 
provided for some weeks at Waukesha, from which 
place they were to return to Tennessee via New 
York, where they would visit relatives, and 
Washington, at the latter place visiting his niece, 
Lyzinka Brown, who was attending Mrs. Somerset’s 
school. If it was not inconvenient for his prospective 
hostess, they would visit Des Moines before going to 
Waukesha. This was in every way agreeable to Re- 
becca, who explained that they made it a point to run 
over to Chicago, during the fair, whenever Elbert had 
business in the city, and thus far they had made several 
trips. Elbert agreed that Rebecca, Marcella and their 
guest, Willie, should remain in Chicago until Lucius 
and Alice had had their fill of the fair, and then all 
could depart together for Des Moines. If his own por- 
tion of the company had not had fair enough, it was 
more than probable that they would have other oppor- 
tunities. This arrangement was eminently agreeable to 
all and its prospective pleasures infused the parties 
thereto with new life. Elbert said: “I’m in the city on 
business, as you know, and business is presumed to be 
before pleasure. I will leave the girls in your care, 
Lucius, until such time as you get ready to start. In 
the meanwhile, I will return home, where I have a 
housekeeper in the person of my little daughter, and 
together we will await your coming.” 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


105 

Upon the conclusion of these arrangements atten- 
tion was drawn to Willie, who was earnestly engaged 
in conversation with George Dubois. The latter had 
been remarking upon the decorations so observant, as 
a part of the celebration of the nation’s natal day, and 
commenting upon the brilliancy of the panorama that 
was presented. Willie, it will be remembered, had. 
like Marcella, very positive views concerning social 
conditions, which she believed could be materially im- 
proved by an observance of the commonest dictates of 
reason and humanity. To George she was saying that 
she felt that the inexorable laws of the land which pre- 
vented a wider enjoyment of the magnificent produc- 
tion of genius, as represented by the World’s Fair, 
were not in harmony with the principles of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, which they had been listen- 
ing to as it was read in the Government Building in 
the forenoon. A people having the capacity to pro- 
duce such wonderful results as were there gathered 
together should have the genius and common sense to 
arrange conditions such as would afford everyone an 
opportunity to avail himself of the educational lesson 
that was presented and for the support of which he was 
in some measure taxed. The masses had their noses 
to the hard-times grindstone, and only a comparative 
few found it possible to visit the great exhibition. 

“Marcella told me in Detroit,” said Ralph to Willie, 
“what an ardent supporter you were of her views, and 


lo6 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

while I take off my hat in proper reverence to an 
honest opinion, let the subject upon which it is formed 
be what it may, it is my impression that business will 
never regain its equilibrium so long as ear is given to 
agitators. I do not mean the honest strivers after bet- 
ter things, when speaking of agitators, but the 
demagogues, who haven’t mental ballast sufficient to 
keep them from getting hard aground upon the rocks 
and shoals of their own ignorance. And one of the 
most inexplicable things to me is that members 
ol this class will find supporters. The honest desire to 
ameliorate conditions, when it emanates from a sound 
and disposing mind and is coupled with a modesty 
that disclaims infallibility, will always receive respect- 
ful consideration. Confidence comes with honest 
striving and baseless agitation breeds a distrust and 
discontent that are injurious.” 

“You will recall, perhaps,” said Marcella to Ralph, 
“that in our conversation in Detroit six years ago I 
predicted the commercial depression that has since 
come, though our nation at that time was in a highly 
prosperous condition. Endless discussion and agita- 
tion in regard to the causes and remedies will be car- 
ried on so long as the nightmare called financial panic 
and hard times rests upon the country. Much that 
will be said and much that will be offered as a solu- 
tion of pending difficulties will be devoid of merit, but 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 107 

out of the multitude of ideas something may be evolved 
that will be of benefit. In this glorious country of 
ours one man is as good as another, in the eye of the 
law, hence has an indisputable right to air his views. 
The agitator pure and simple, who agitates for self- 
aggrandizement and without any well defined idea of 
conditions to be amended, is a very dangerous person. 

“In our school life, Willie and I subscribed to a 
bond having for its aim the betterment of the com- 
mon people, by whom we meant the people whose priv- 
ilege it was to earn their bread by the sweat of their 
brows. Our vows remain unbroken and it is our ear- 
nest desire that comfort and the possibilities of happi- 
ness should be more generally distributed among the 
burden-bearers. The salutary influences of the home 
are not to be overestimated, and as they are improved 
the nation is made better. The home-makers, by 
whom I mean the wives and mothers, have a vast in- 
fluence over the bread-winners, and when the pres- 
sure of penury, which falls hardest upon the former, is 
mitigated or removed altogether, the influence for 
good is unfailing. If the wives and daughters of those 
who have been blessed with abundance would think 
less of self and more of others, and not only think 
but act in the cause of humanity, there would be an 
elevation of womanhood throughout the land, so far- 
reaching for good as to be beyond estimation. The 
happier the hearthstones of a people, the better the 


108 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

nation to which they belong, and the surer are its 
foundations. Good mothers will make a good people. 

“We are especially anxious that the little children 
should build for the future upon a foundation of hap- 
piness. With happiness there is less incentive to evil- 
doing, and if children’s lives are started in the right 
direction it is almost a certainty that they will make 
good men and women. Is there anyone in our nation, 
rich or poor, high or low, who has aught to offer 
against so reasonable a proposition?” 

“Your proposition is all right, Marcella,” said 
Ralph, “and there is no doubt about its meeting the 
approval of every sane person to whom you may sub- 
mit it, but what of that if it stops right there?” 

“But it will not,” said Marcella. 

“Well, with nine hundred and ninety-nine out of 
every thousand. I will accord you the benefit of a 
small margin. The result you aim at is greatly to be 
desired, of course, and if it could be accomplished 
would work a world of good, but while human nature 
is as it is you may pour the milk of human kindness in 
at one ear and through natural perversity it will find 
its way out through the orifice on the opposite side. I 
don’t want to discourage you or exaggerate the ob- 
stacles you are sure to find in your way. I simply de- 
sire to impress upon you the fact that human nature is 
a very complex affair and very disconcerting to the 
person who attacks it with any other notion.” 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. log 

“You shall neither discourage nor disconcert us,” 
said Marcella. “If all the high and holy aims that are 
entertained by well-meaning people throughout the 
world were carried to a successful issue, what would 
become of the evils with which we are burdened? 
They would disappear like the dew before the ascend- 
ing sun. Some must fail wholly ; some will meet with 
partial success and some are blessed with rich returns 
for their labor. Whichever category Willie and I may 
be in, when the balance is struck, we will not repine, 
for we will have done the best we could with such in- 
strumentalities as came to our hands, and though we 
are weak, who knows but we may be made strong by 
Him whose ways are not our ways?” 

“That is spoken like a brave girl, anway,” said 
Ralph, “and you can be assured that I wish you the 
fullest measure of success.” 

“Then what becomes of your opportunity to say T 
told you so?’ ” said Willie, laughingly. 

“Well, it will not be the first time that my calcula- 
tions have gone astray,” responded Ralph, good- 
humoredly. “I think the present hard times are due 
in no small measure to the change of administration 
at Washington. Mr. Harrison gave us a clean and 
conservative four years and if he had continued in of- 
fice I think we would have escaped the present finan- 
cial turmoil. As a matter of fact, I think we have alto- 
gether too much politics, anyway. They are disturb- 


1 10 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


ing to business and a source of profit to none but 
those who are out after the political loaves and fishes.” 

Mr. Dubois was not ready to subscribe to the belief 
that the change in administration had brought about 
the pending upheaval. The commercial collapse be- 
gan before Mr. Cleveland assumed the reins of govern- 
ment, in fact Mr. Harrison's secretary of the treasury 
had a bond issue ready, but withheld it to saddle upon 
his successor the onus of. doing what he knew must be 
done to save the public credit. 

Lucius said that while the world was moving the 
people were permitting their thoughts to run too much 
in the old grooves. Everything in nature was expand- 
ing rapidly toward some definite point, under the all- 
wise guidance of Providence, whose purposes the finite 
mind could not fathom. The mad desire of the power- 
ful few to compel the many to become burden-bearers 
beyond their capacity was an inherited disorder, com- 
ing down to us from the Dark Ages, when might made 
right and law had no more secure foundation than the 
whims of the titled swashbucklers. King George 
sought to override justice and compel our ancestors 
to submit to conditions that were repugnant to their 
ideas of right. We all know what happened and that 
we are permitted to celebrate this glorious day is evi- 
dence that our ancestors were men of mettle. King 
George lost the brightest jewel from his colonial 
crown, and after divorcing themselves with the sword 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Ill 


from his further unjust interference, the wise men of 
the revolutionary period set to work for the upbuild- 
ing of the greatest nation of the earth, with equal 
rights for all as the corner-stone. But, even in that 
day, there were those who sought to control an unjust 
proportion of the wealth produced by the people. No 
manipulations were spared by the adherents of Alex- 
ander Hamilton to this end, and it must be admitted 
that those who were opposed to him were not his 
equals in cleverness. Hamilton believed absolutely in 
measures that would favor the aristocracy. Had he 
been otherwise inclined ; had he been favorable to the 
common people, he would, with his clear mind, have 
conferred vast benefits upon humanity. Our nation 
has always experienced financial panics because of 
legislative measures favorable to the control of our 
finances by moneyed men, those who had less thought 
foi' the general good than for their own private gain 
and were willing to despoil the people, as King George 
had done. Hamilton began this evil with the United 
States Bank, the disastrous effects of which were so 
much feared by Jefferson that he would not renew the 
charter. To procure money to carry on the war of 
1812 it became necessary to resort to the money lend- 
ers, and the United States Bank was rechartered. 

During the next ensuing eighteen years this money 
monopoly became so powerful that when the question 
of rechartering the bank came up, during Jackson’s ad- 


1 12 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


ministration, Nicholas Biddle, the president of the 
bank, said to Jackson: “If you do not pass laws to 
suit me, I will defeat you for re-election. I have the 
influence to control the vote of every state in the 
Union.” Jackson’s response was characteristic of the 
man. He said: “Biddle, if your institution has that 
power it is a monster, and a menace to free govern- 
ment, and I will crush the monster.” And he did. At 
this time so great was the passing fame of Nicholas 
Biddle that crowds would go out to greet him as they 
would a king. How few there are now who do honor 
to his memory by a knowledge of his former great- 
ness, but the fame of Jackson, the defender of the 
rights of the common people, is imperishable. Jack- 
son’s mind did not run in the same channel with those 
who have built up the clearing-houses and trusts of the 
country. In trying to maintain equal distribution of 
the medium of exchange he established the state banks, 
which were only to issue money against gold and sil- 
ver held by them, but the system was defective and was 
well named later as the “wildcat banking system.” 
The banks had the power to issue money with prac- 
tically no control by the government, and how deplor- 
able was the condition incident to the exercise of this 
power is a matter of history. While this system was 
in vogue and the North was in the throes of a financial 
crisis as a consequence, the Civil War came on. The 
South had but one staple, cotton, to dispose of, and 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


113 

that being sold abroad, she was less affected by the 
evils of an unstable currency. 

If Jackson had established the United States Bank, 
backed, not by the moneyed men dependent upon the 
government, but by the government dependent upon 
the people, with branch banks throughout the coun- 
try, he would have provided the safest possible sys- 
tem. When the Civil War came then again the gen- 
eral government had the ever-present problem of a 
medium of exchange to deal with, and a solution was 
sought by explorers in finance that would respond to 
the needs of the country. There were patriotic capi- 
talists in those days who were willing to let the poor 
man gird up his loins and go out and fight the enemy, 
while they hoarded the gold and silver, “the sinews 
of war.” This compelled Lincoln’s administration to 
adopt Thaddeus Stevens’ method of issuing govern- 
ment money or “greenbacks.” This idea did not suit 
the hoarders, who immediately came forward with 
their successful scheme to cover the greenbacks with 
bonds, and on these bonds, or our country’s debt, is 
based the present national banking system. 

Lincoln, like Jackson, made a mistake. In the na- 
tional banking system an unbearable burden has been 
placed upon the shoulders of the people, and moneyed 
men are permitted an influence which allows them to 
ride the masses without sparing whip or spur. With 
the oncoming of the Civil War the administration 
8 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


1T 4 

should have established a system whereby the green- 
back would not have been made a perpetual burden. 
By its issue necessary war measures could be carried 
out, and by taxation the issue could be retired, as are 
the bonds, and in this way the government would have 
full control of the medium of exchange, for the benefit 
of the whole people. 

Mr. Dubois agreed with Lucius. In his judgment 
it was not free trade or protective tariff that materially 
affected the conditions under which the great majority 
of people were compelled to live. What, above and 
beyond all else, was most needed was the adjustment 
of the country to an honest commercial basis, whereby 
the equities of labor would be considered. There was 
protection of class interests through legislation ; there 
was overproduction, due to improved machinery, and 
ther6 was financial manipulation for selfish ends, and 
through this unhappy combination the national skies 
were overcast and the country was passing through a 
very dark hour. He felt, however, that in Grover 
Cleveland the country had a safe man at the helm. 
The latter was honest, earnest and not to be swerved 
from a purpose that had commended itself to him, by 
the sophistries of scheming politicians. What he be- 
lieved to be right he would maintain in defiance of op- 
position, though it came from his own political friends. 
The American people were not to be distrusted be- 
cause there was a perceptible creak in the wheels of 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


"5 


government. The masses were honest and meant for 
the best, and in due course the clouds would lift and 
disappear and the perplexing problems of the present 
would be solved. There were very few so steeped in 
selfishness as to be wholly oblivious to the just rights 
of humanity. 

Willie cordially assented to this last proposition. 
People were not purposely blind to the rights of oth- 
ers. They became so absorbed with their own affairs 
as to be oblivious to the fact that there was an un- 
necessary amount of suffering in the world, to the re- 
lief of which they might contribute, without material 
effort. One could never anticipate the far-reaching 
effects of a kindly action, even though trivial in itself. 
It might be small as a mustard seed, but if sown in 
fertile ground it brought forth honor and glory for the 
sower. The world was but a combination of infinitesi- 
mal particles, and the little kindnesses, often rendered 
unthinkingly, went far toward mitigating the suffer- 
ings of the human race. 

“Little drops of water, little grains of sand 

Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.” 

“If we can erect so beautiful a city as this, for so 
ephemeral a purpose,” said Marcella, “why, by the 
application of the same intelligence and energy, wide- 
spread throughout the world, may we not build for 
humanity in general ? The plan is far-reaching and 
wholly impractical, perhaps, but why should it be so? 


Il6 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

There is a universal brotherhood, and God is the 
Father, and why should not the concern of one be the 
concern of all? By instilling into the people higher 
ideals we furnish a foundation for their intelligence to 
build upon, and such structures as they erect will be to 
the everlasting honor of those who contribute to the 
initiatory work. Would that these foreign flags that 
we see fluttering about us, in this beautiful ‘White 
City’ were a token that all nations had subscribed to 
a bond to do justice to all men ! But the world moves, 
and for the better, too, I feel. There is sin and suffer- 
ing, the contemplation of which sometimes over- 
whelms the fainthearted well-wisher of his kind. But 
there is progress toward the light, and for that we can 
reverently thank God and take courage.” 


CHAPTER X. 

DES MOINES. 

“Equity is a roguish thing. For law we have a measure, 
know what to trust to; equity is according to the conscience 
of him that is chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, 
so is equity.” — John Selden. 

Grand avenue, in Des Moines, is a very handsome 
residence street, due largely to the fact that the city is 
beautifully located at the junction of the Des Moines 
and Raccoon rivers, on rolling land, covered with 
beautiful shade trees, and that each home is surrounded 
by several acres of ground. Half-way between the 
business section and the city limits, Mr. F. M. Hub- 
bell owns and occupies the old Allen homestead, which 
covers twenty acres of ground, divided into terraces, 
lawns, artificial lakes and tennis grounds, with a mag- 
nificent view from the residence, which is built on a 
high elevation, overlooking in the rear the Raccoon 
River and a wide sweep of country. 

Across the street from this residence stood one of 
Des Moines’ oldest homes, known as the Meritt Place, 
which gave one the impression of an old southern 
home, from the beautiful vines and shrubbery that en- 
folded it and had been carefuly trained under the di- 
rection of Colonel Meritt’s widow, who owned the 
place. Elbert Foster, when he moved to Des Moines, 
had been fortunate enough to secure this pleasant 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


1 18 

place for his family. In the large drawing-room of this 
old home, toward the close of June, sat Rebecca, in an 
easy attitude indicative of fatigue. The day before 
had been “Park Day,” when the people of Des Moines 
had dedicated a new breathing spot at the western end 
of the city. There had been a very general effort to 
do honor to the occasion. The people had made gay 
their homes with flags and bunting and those owning 
carriages had ingeniously decorated them and partici- 
pated in a parade, which was an important feature of 
the day’s program. Elbert and Rebecca had expended 
their energy on beautifying a spider phaeton, using 
therein hundreds of roses and carnations, yards of 
smilax and asparagus, bolts of blue ribbon and a suit- 
able number of flags, and harnessed to this resplendent 
outfit was their handsome team of blacks, the whole 
driven by Elbert, who was accompanied by Rebecca, 
forming a very noticable feature of the parade. 

Rebecca was experiencing the natural reaction of 
the previous day’s excitement, though she was enter- 
taining guests who were in an adjoining room, enjoy- 
ing their after-dinner cigars. These guests were her 
uncle, Marcella’s father, who was attending a bankers’ 
convention in the city, and three of his associates. 
With Rebecca was Marcella, holding in her arms Re- 
becca’s beautiful baby boy, called Nicholas, and named 
after a remote ancestor, who had been conspicuous in 
the early annals of Ohio, while close at hand was 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 1 19 

Catharine, Rebecca’s little girl, whose charming prattle 
could but delight the listener. The latter had been 
supreme in the household until the advent of Nicholas, 
and she gave expression to the plaint, most natural, 
that her kingdom had been divided. Marcella, whose 
mission it was to assuage the griefs of those about her, 
gave Catharine the assurance that there had been no 
diminution in the love for her, but with the coming 
of Nicholas there had been provided a new fund of 
love. During her effort to make clear to the child 
the new conditions Mr. Allen entered the room, ac- 
companied by Mr. Chase, a banker of Marshalltown, 
Mr. Belzer from Iowa City and Mr. Robinson of Dav- 
enport, to whom he was saying that his daughter Mar- 
cella would find pleasure in hearing them discuss the 
questions which the iron pressure of circumstances 
caused all to be interested in. Elbert, who had come 
in with the guests, took great pleasure in showing to 
them his children, after which the latter were given 
in charge of the nurse. 

“I am not sure,” said Mr. Allen, who was very fond 
of the little ones, ‘“that the love of a child and the faith 
it accords you is not the most elevating influence in 
the world. It comes to you as a sacred trust from a 
heart wholly guileless, and the one who is proof 
against its influence is morally deficient. It is an abso- 
lutely pure sentiment, free from the dross of the world, 
and should be cherished above all things. The love of 


120 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


the child should instill within us higher and holier 
thoughts, and move us to deeds bereft of selfishness 
and sin. At best, I can sojourn but a few years longer 
in this world, but while life lasts I desire to give my 
best effort toward contributing to the welfare of the 
children, not alone those who are akin to me, but those 
who are less blessed in home and parental influence. I 
desire to see conditions so adjusted that all children 
may be permitted, under happy influences, to develop 
the capacity with which they have been endowed by 
the Creator. In other words, that they may have a 
chance to become good men and women, which chance 
is now denied so many thousands of the rising gen- 
eration. ” 

“Why, father, have you become a convert to my 
views or have I inherited your ideas?” asked Mar- 
cella, laughingly. 

“A little of both, perhaps, my daughter,” said Mr. 
Allen. 

“You talk just as Willie and I do, when we get upon 
our pet theme, and it rejoices me to hear you. We 
want the little ones to have the best there is in the way 
of opportunity. We look upon them as essential to 
national amelioration. We do not care for ‘woman’s 
rights, - ' believing that women as mothers, sisters, 
sweethearts and wives can best subserve the purposes 
of the Creator by influencing their sons, brothers, lov- 
ers and husbands to be good and true men. We be- 


the crucial test. 


121 


lieve a proper regard for the children will make better 
men, better women and a better world. We are for 
children’s rights. ‘As the bough is bent the tree in- 
clines.’ The selfish ‘rights’ of people who have ar- 
rived at maturity and ought to know better, we are 
less interested in.” 

Mr. Robinson was of the opinion that no better rem- 
edy could be proposed for the spirit of discontent that 
pervaded the homes of well-to-do American women 
than a participation in this work of child development. 

“Yes,” said Mr. Allen, “and they will find a fascina- 
tion in it that will be surprising to them. Work of 
some sort is an absolute necessity to a contented life. 
You take a business man out of harness and he is lost, 
and time becomes a positive burden to him. Let the 
woman who has had the cares of a household upon 
her hands suddenly find herself without employment 
and she will soon pine for the old conditions. The 
contented child is occupied ceaselessly in carrying into 
effect the thoughts of an immature mind ; the same 
may be said of the youth ; the man has his aspirations, 
whatever their nature, and to secure for them the full- 
est fruition he works. Old age comes on and places 
an embargo upon the activities, but the desire to have 
some definite purpose in life remains. All who have 
well regulated minds maintain a ceaseless interest in 
work of some sort, and the person who is without this 
interest is well on the road to moral and mental decay. 


122 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


There is no room in this world for the sluggard, 
whether man or woman. The opportunities are bound- 
less. A kind word here, a helping hand there, a lift 
to the fallen, a draught to the thirsty — they all count 
when God makes up the record of rewards, if rewards 
are wanted for kindly deeds performed. There are 
endless opportunities for work of this sort, and while 
the chances for the bread-winner are less prolific, they 
should not be so. Man has an inalienable right to 
work, and when he is willing to work it is in the nature 
of a crime to withhold it from him. It is an injustice 
to him and to those who are dependent upon him, and 
where this injustice becomes widespread the founda- 
tions of society are imperiled.” 

“I am glad, uncle/’ said Rebecca,” to hear you give 
expression to the belief that those willing to work 
should have employment. It is but a few weeks since 
we watched ‘Kelly’s Army’ march by. We are just 
at the head of the grade and as they reached our house 
they could view the city for the first time. I presume 
the residences on this street presented to their view a 
very unsympathetic aspect, but when they caught sight 
of the city they realized that they had reached a point 
where they could rest and acquire new vigor for their 
march to the nation’s capital to plead for conditions 
that would permit them to exchange some of their 
brawn for the necessities of life. I thought if my little 
son should grow up and fate should place him in a 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 1 2 3 

position such as these men occupy, life would be a ter- 
rible gift. In our world, where one force is so merci- 
less to another, one cannot foresee with what heavy 
burdens he will be weighted. It is with great appre- 
hension that we see a little one start upon life’s jour- 
ney, for the pathway is strewn with wrecked hopes, 
and courage, strength and the will to endure give no 
assurance of a successful issue.” 

Mr. Belzer appealed to Mr. Allen for an opinion as 
to whether it was not possible for the willing worker to 
find work. He thought it was. He believed the pre- 
vailing distress was in large measure due to the ad- 
ministration of government by the Democratic party 
and that when the Republicans returned to power, as 
they undoubtedly would, prosperity, as a result of re- 
stored public confidence, would return. There was a 
lack of confidence in Democratic methods, and with 
confidence destroyed the industries suffered. 

This view Mr. Allen could not subscribe to, and 
said : “I launched my bark upon the sea of busi- 
ness with very much the same impression, but I’ve 
changed my views. I came of New England parentage 
and inherited the characteristics of that people. 
Through industry and by taking advantage of the op- 
portunities opened up by the rapid development of the 
West, I was able to accumulate money in the bank- 
ing business. Through loans that were not met at 
maturity I acquired many acres of valuable land, but I 


124 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


have the consciousness of never having resorted to the 
thumb screws to enforce a settlement with an unfortu- 
nate debtor. My hopes were not centered in the ac- 
cumulation of wealth, but in my motherless daughter, 
who early developed a desire to be of some service to 
her fellows and to relieve the condition of those who 
were oppressed by fortune. I have always been a Re- 
publican but I cannot give adhesion to the view so 
common among partisans that the party of my choice 
is always right and the opposition always and irre- 
vocably wrong. There are good men in both parties 
and there are bad men. To several causes may be 
attributed the submergement of the present administra- 
tion, and the distressful industrial conditions that have 
been noted, and not the least among these causes is 
overproduction. President Cleveland is no more to 
blame for the existing depression than he was for the 
booming times of his first administration, but the peo- 
ple are writhing under the terrible pressure of present 
conditions and will seek relief therefrom by voting 
the Democrats out and the Republicans in when the 
opportunity offers. A natural reaction will favor the 
latter. The evils of overproduction will have been dis- 
sipated by the stoppage of production, and the neces- 
sity for a renewal of business will develop naturally. 
The Republicans will return to office, the factory 
wheels will begin to revolve, and the credit for the 
revival of business will go to the party in power, re- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


125 

gardless of the fact that they have in no measure con- 
tributed to the return of good times. But so it is. We 
writhe under our ills and seek relief therefrom in our 
own way, very many of us blindly. 

“The gambling trait in human nature has been thor- 
oughly developed by our system of society. That 
method of doing business is most popular that is pro- 
ductive of quickest returns and largest profits. We 
cannot wait to acquire money through the slow pro- 
cesses of labor. Any scheme that will bring a vast 
fortune to the projector, no matter how many are 
made to suffer by its evolvement, is looked upon as 
right. As when Victor Hugo wrote his masterpiece, 
‘Les Miserables,’ the law punishes a starving person 
for stealing bread but allows combinations of capital 
to absorb the marrow of our industries and place a 
lien upon the earning power of every wage-earner. 
What remedy would I suggest? Well, advice is one 
of the things we all have in abundance for the better- 
ment of our friends, and it can be had of us without 
money and without price. 

“The delicate mechanism of commerce is made ap- 
parent to all when they observe how it can be effectu- 
ally tied up in a few hours through the instrumentali- 
ties of a great strike, such as they have been having at 
the Pullman works. The remedy for such outbreaks 
between capital and labor? My judgment is that the 
remedy is with the people. Before the law and at the 


126 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


ballot box, one man is just as good as another. The 
ballot of the man who counts his wealth by millions 
is no more potent than the ballot of the man who earns 
hi? bread by the sweat of his forehead and wonders as 
he does so why God has made his lot in life so hard. 
The bread-winners preponderate and if they will but 
stand together they have it within their power to com- 
pel relief, to bring about a peaceable revolution of con- 
ditions, such as will inure to their everlasting benefit. 
They will find in asking justice, instead of seeking to 
force issues by strikes, that there is a chord in every 
human heart that is responsive to the right.” 

Mr. Belzer directed attention to the European wage- 
worker and expressed the opinion that the American 
workingman was approaching a condition very simi- 
lar. The foreigner gauged his wants by his earning 
capacity and found contentment with less if more was 
not to be had. 

Mr. Allen said the American workingman should 
not be content with any such result. He is a sover- 
eign, free and untrammeled, responsible only to God 
and his fellow man. He has been born in the light of 
a free government with the right to aspire. No satrap 
can be set over him to whom he must grovel for the 
favor of living. In the light of the law he is the equal of 
the man whom the suffrages of the people place at the 
helm of government, and it is within the realm of the 
possible for him to be so chosen. The American work- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


127 


ingman can never be brought to the level suggested 
for he knows his rights and will maintain them. The 
largest price any people has ever paid in blood and 
treasure for the priceless boon of liberty has been 
paid by the American people, in the war to throw off 
the shackles of King George, in the war of 1812, and 
in the great civil conflict of ’6 i-’ 65, and it emphasized 
and made clear the inalienable right — inherited from 
his Creator — of every man to earn a fair living by 
honest work and to be upheaded in any company. A 
reasonable amount of the pleasures of life should be 
within the grasp of every person, if we would have peo- 
ple normal. Enjoyment of the achievements of civili- 
zation by all classes, instead of, as now, by the com- 
parative few, would broaden the horizon of hope and 
aspiration for the masses and be productive of a more 
wonderful development than we have yet witnessed. 

“What has caused such unequal conditions ?” asked 
Mr. Robinson. “Before the war wealth was more 
equally distributed. ” 

“We may divide our country up into three epochs,” 
said Mr. Allen. “From the constitutional convention 
in 1785 to the election of Jefferson in 1800, the issue 
was whether our government should be republican 
or monarchical in form. From the election of Jeffer- 
son to the death of Lincoln, in 1865, the great issue 
W as whether a nation dedicated to freedom could con- 
sistently protect slavery. With the death of Lincoln 


128 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


commenced the great commercial epoch, fittingly 
closed by the greatest of mercantile exhibits, the 
World’s Fair at Chicago. Earnestly do I hope that 
our history will chronicle that during the fourth epoch 
through which we are now passing will be settled 
the questions that interfere with an equality of justice 
to all men. The election of Jefferson settled the mat- 
ter of free government, in name at least, but the in- 
vention of machinery which may be said to have com- 
menced with the cotton gin and which harnessed me- 
chanical power to labor, worked more successfully to 
secure government for the classes than aught else. 
Machinery directed by one endowed with high mental 
qualifications produces great wealth, but absorbs it 
even more rapidly and the appetite for absorption 
grows with feeding. The cotton gin harnessed to the 
negro made the people of the South so vastly wealthy 
that they were able to control our government for a 
period of fifty years, and as will be readily assumed, 
, they took good care of their own interests. When we 
found that the methods of the southern people were 
detrimental to moral and material growth, it took the 
most terrible war ever fought to overturn the injuri- 
ous system. Out of the results of this war arose the 
terrible evils of commercial slavery. Commerce, 
through our lobby system, has enthroned King 
Money, who is more tyrannical to our working people 
than the southerner would have cared to have been 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


I29 


to his slaves. Commerce considers human beings of 
very little value and prefers almost entirely the use of 
machinery to the use of men. Machinery outwears 
men and does more work and is more subservient and 
has neither thoughts nor aspirations and does not re- 
sent injustices. As used now in competition with 
men, machines are diabolical inventions, which the 
world would have been better without. 

“Our monetary system is founded upon a rock of 
colossal selfish class legislation. Three of us here 
present are national bankers. We invest our money 
in government bonds wherewith to start our banks. 
We not only draw interest on our investments, but 
we issue money against the bonds, to loan, thus sap- 
ping the substance of the people in two ways, first 
through the government, which is the people, and, 
second, through our interest accounts, which indicate 
what the people pay us for loans. We know that un- 
der this system commerce must be so strained 
that it can never be stable, and we cannot 
have a medium of exchange large enough to 
transact business upon. When the panic came the 
people of the West were not doing business upon 
legal tender issued, by us or the government, but upon 
the credit and good-will of the people, which their 
notes represented. These commercial depressions will 
continue until the government has entire control of 
the medium of exchange, which will then flow out cer- 
9 


130 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


tain channels, feeding commerce as it passes through 
the nation and returning for redemption to the Treas- 
ury, where a wise system will maintain a careful bal- 
ance. Then conditions will be such that every person 
who has the desire, which is natural to every normal 
person, can have opportunities for work at living 
wages. 

“The Union Pacific furnishes an instance of the dis- 
regard of capital for the rights of the people. Neither 
loan nor interest has ever been paid the government 
and never will be until some set of manipulators find a 
chance to make vast fortunes on watered stock, by do- 
ing so.” 

“If our government could spend millions and give 
half our public domain to a few capitalists to encour- 
age the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, could 
not our chief executive spend the public money to en- 
courage the less favored of fortune to go to work and 
develop the country in some other channel, thereby 
mitigating in great measure the suffering that is so 
rife?” asked Marcella. 

“No, my child,” said Mr. Allen, “Mr. Cleveland is 
not the government. There are three co-ordinate 
branches, the administrative, the legislative and the 
judicial. His action is dependent upon legislative ac- 
tion ; he carries out the behests of Congress. He ad- 
ministers such laws as that body may make. The peo- 
ple are in large measure responsible for their present 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


131 

sufferings. , They are apathetic and have allowed evils 
to develop, that in the sovereign right of citizenship 
and equality before the law, they might have scotched. 
President Cleveland is now engaged in a herculean ef- 
fort to hew away the nettles from a path that, when 
properly cleared, will be of benefit to the people, and 
all honor to him, for he is the only one who has had 
the strength of his convictions sufficiently to engage 
in the work. I refer to the terrible spoils system which 
he is endeavoring to destroy by the enforcement of 
civil service reform. It has been a curse so apparent 
as to be wholly indefensible. It has corrupted our 
politics and made success therein dependent not upon 
integrity and fitness but upon th'e ability of candidates 
to manipulate their fellow voters with promises of re- 
ward. Though he has alienated the officeholders, the 
President is persisting in the work he has mapped out 
for himself, and with all the determination of a Jack- 
son hews to the line, letting the chips fall where they 
may. Corruption is a canker that must be driven out 
of the body politic if we would maintain our high po- 
sition among the nations of the earth, and until the 
people combine they will remain the victims of cor- 
ruption. I wish I could impress upon them their own 
strength and the absolute need of combined action 
if they would be rid of the- evils of which they com- 
plain.” 

Rebecca asked her uncle if it was fair for President 


132 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

Cleveland to sell bonds to maintain the gold standard. 

“The money power has the government by the 
throat,” said Mr. Allen. “When labor is in such posi- 
tion through improved mechanical appliances and 
consequent overproduction that it cannot produce rev- 
enue for the money power in sufficient quantity, then 
capital, through the endless chain, forces the gold out 
of the Treasury, and to maintain the gold reserve of 
one hundred millions the government is compelled to 
sell bonds. When conditions brighten up a bit labor 
will bear its share of the burden of paying interest on 
these bonds. As for the gold standard, our monetary 
svstem could not be more unfair or unjust, but com- 
merce must have some foundation to stand upon, and 
changing the standard would not help conditions. 
Free coinage of silver would only tend to the advan- 
tage of an already vastly wealthy class. Many of our 
largest silver mines are owned by foreign capitalists.” 

Marcella inquired whether the maintenance of the 
gold standard was not class legislation for the gold- 
mine owners. 

“Possibly, my dear,” said Mr. Allen, “but legislat- 
ing in favor of silver would not benefit the people. 
When we make a change in our financial system we 
must legislate not for any class but for the people at 
large. We must have in view the farmer and the day 
laborer as well as the merchant and the capitalist. If 
the tiller of the soil and the mechanic are prosperous 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


133 

all others will be so, for after all is said and done, they 
are the foundation of commercial prosperity. Since 
the hard times have been upon us I have journeyed 
over the country considerably, and not altogether with 
my eyes closed, and it has occurred to me that the de- 
gree of prosperity that will come to us as a nation will 
always be influenced to a greater or less extent by the 
liquor evil. The first barn in Columbiana County, 
Ohio, the framework of which was got into place with- 
out the use of liquor, was raised by my father on the 
farm where Marcella was born, near New Waterford. 
Shortly after the first temperance meeting held in the 
county was convened in the barn of Elbert’s grand- 
father. No one believes more strongly than I 'do in 
the benefits that would accrue from prohibition, but I 
am not a striver after the impossible and I do not 
think it possible to effect prohibition. Such being the 
case, I would agree to any plan that would in any 
measure curtail the evil. Upon the solution of this 
problem depends much else, and without its solution 
we will always be hampered in our efforts after better 
things. We must look the matter squarely in the face, 
and, setting aside all unjustifiable prejudice, must 
realize that the liquor dealer is not the only culpable 
person. Without the appetite of the consumer the 
dealer would find his occupation gone. It is not a 
delectable employment, we will agree, and none of us 
here would care to engage in it, but it has the protec- 


134 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


tion of the law, and that being the case, we should see 
that the laws are intelligently framed and fairly ex- 
ecuted. I have met men who are in the liquor busi- 
ness and find that they deplore the evils of the traffic 
as much as you or I, but circumstances have forced or 
led them into the business. They find the problem of 
life difficult to solve, just as does the merchant, the 
minister or the mechanic, and would be glad if the evils 
attendant upon the traffic in which they are engaged 
could be lessened. As Mr. Robinson has suggested, I 
believe the most practical solution of the liquor evil 
would be for the government to take entire charge of 
the traffic in intoxicants. It seems like, a large under- 
taking, but we are a large people, with a large coun- 
try and large propositions are the ones that interest us 
most. The mechanism would be no more intricate 
than that of our postoffice department, and the ad- 
ministration would have the authority to compress the 
evil within controllable limits. The treating habit, that 
vicious encouragement to a vicious appetite, could be 
wiped out completely, and this of itself would make a 
very visible impression for good. No one who has not 
given the matter thought can realize how villainous a 
practice this treating habit is. It is a temptation to the 
weak and the greatest menace to society that is found 
within the liquor evil. It is a ridiculous habit, wholly 
American and wholly bad. It isn’t an evidence of good 
fellowship; it is proof positive of bad fellowship and 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


135 


moral weakness. One man in treating another may 
do a more terrible wrong to society than the desperado 
who robs you of your valuables. It may be the means 
of starting a young man upon the road to perdition, 
and it is the means, times without number. How 
many able men have been ruined for life, thereby bring- 
ing agonizing suffering upon helpless women and lit- 
tle children, through the treating habit, we may not 
know, but we may well imagine that the shores of 
eternity are strewn with the wrecks. Three times the 
revenues of our government are spent on liquor in 
this country. We enact a protective tariff to raise reve- 
nue to run our government, while an amount equal to 
the revenues so raised goes annually to England to 
enrich the stockholders in our breweries, the latter 
maintaining the majority of the saloons in our large 
cities.” 

Elbert said that in Des Moines, when prohibition 
was in effect, the business conditions were better and 
that merchants generally were more successful than 
they were in Omaha in the same lines, and it was his 
opinion that the repeal of the prohibition law would 
be very injurious to business in Des Moines, more so, 
possibly, than the commercial depression, the panic 
and drouth combined. 

Mr. Chase thought that while they were consider- 
ing the evils that were afflicting society they ought not 
to overlook the drouth. 


136 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


“Well,” said Mr. Allen, “when the economic situ- 
ation has been adjusted and people have come more to 
think of keeping the national house in order than of 
worrying about money, I believe we can apply a remedy 
that will be effectual in preventing the evils of drouth. 
When the floods come we can store the water and tile 
it from the ground into reservoirs. When the weather 
is dry the water can be used as required. It will perco- 
late through the soil to the streams, navigation will be 
benefited and our waterways will not show such a ten- 
dency to diminish in volume. It will be a large engi- 
neering feat, but no more so than were the pyramids 
or the sphynx, those gigantic monuments which amaze 
us to-day and which the Egyptians constructed when 
they associated their religion with astronomy. What 
the ancients could do with their immature appliances 
we may do in this progressive age. When our govern- 
ment is so systematized that everyone will have the op- 
portunity to use his full capacity, we will attain won- 
derful achievements, which will surprise us as much as 
our rapid development from a savage wilderness into 
the greatest nation of the world, within a century, has 
surprised the onlookers from across the sea. We have 
it in us and though there sometimes come grave dis- 
couragements we must keep our faces to the fore, ever 
mindful that we can conquer success by unity of 
thought and action.” 


CHAPTER XI. 

CHICAGO. 

“Never was there a time, in the history of the world, when 
moral heroes were more needed. The world waits for such. 
The providence of God has commanded science to labor 
and prepare the way for such. For them she is laying her 
iron tracks, stretching her wires, and bridging the oceans. 
But where are they? Who shall breathe into our civil and 
political relations the breath of a higher life?'' 

— Dr. Mark Hopkins.- 

Trouble, in one form or another, comes to all of 
us, in the journey through life. To-day our firmament 
may be cloudless, the sunshine of prosperity beaming 
fervently upon us and ours. To-morrow, unheralded, 
the clouds appear, our sky is o’ercast as with a pall and 
the storm descends. 

Worn out with the strain of commercial depres- 
sion, the American people were watching with grave 
anxiety the campaign of 1896. Not alone the working- 
man but the merchant was feeling the unkindly influ- 
ence of conditions, and upon the commercial sea were 
floating countless wrecks of those who were unable to 
breast the storm. Those yet whole were painfully 
striving to read in the signs of the times some impend- 
ing change for the better. 

It was at this time in Chicago that Rebecca Foster 
and Marcella met Ralph Lower, by appointment, at the 
137 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


I3 8 

latter’s office in the Tribune building. Elbert and Re- 
becca’s home in Des Moines had been destroyed by 
fire during February, 1894, when the mercury regis- 
tered twenty degrees below zero. Owing to this un- 
pleasant experience, and the unfavorable effects of the 
commercial depression in Iowa, Elbert planned to 
leave Des Moines and had all arrangements made to 
locate in St. Louis. At the Planter’s Hotel in the 
latter city he met Mr. J. G. Gilmore, who had been 
one of his kindest friends in Omaha. Mr. Gilmore 
was moving his business to St. Louis. Elbert was 
pleased with the prospect of making St. Louis his 
home, and Rebecca and Marcella shared in his disap- 
pointment when a misunderstanding about the lease of 
the building to be occupied as a place of business 
changed their plans. Elbert took a position with a 
carriage firm in Chicago, where they lived until the 
failure of his father’s business. 

Rebecca and Marcella were received kindly by 
Ralph. 

“We thought you might advise us in the matter of a 
change we are considering,’’ said Marcella. “You 
know that I have some ideas about social amelioration, 
and while I know in a general way what I want to do 
I would go forward more confidently if I had your 
advice and encouragement in carrying out my plans.” 

“I have great faith in your discernment, Marcella, 
but let me have an outline of your purpose, and then 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


139 

if I can assist you with advice or something more tan- 
gible, I will do so with pleasure/’ 

“It has been suggested to me by those eminent for 
their efforts to amend conditions that are oppressive 
to the masses, that I put my ideas into book form. I 
do not admit that the proposition appalls me, for I 
would hesitate at nothing that would in any measure 
contribute to the success of a movement in the direc- 
tion indicated. While it is easy to talk and easy to 
write, my efforts in these directions may prove to 
be but empty utterances, if my views are not prop- 
erly grounded in something feasible, something that 
will commend itself to those whom I seek to benefit. 
If my conclusions as to a remedy for prevailing ills 
are indorsed by the farmers and the workingmen, who 
are the producers, and by the merchants and profes- 
sional men, who serve to balance the social scale, I 
shall feel that I am not far astray.” 

“Assuredly not,” said Ralph. “Such an indorse- 
ment would be tantamount to success for any effort 
you might make.” 

“Accompanied by Elbert, Rebecca and the children, 
I am going down to my father’s old home in Colum- 
biana County, Ohio,” continued Marcella. “This is 
one of the counties of Governor McKinley’s old con- 
gressional district, and after feeling the public pulse 
there, if I find it beating in unison with my own, I shall 


140 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


feel that I have chosen the wise course, and that there 
will be justification for any further effort I may make. 

“ 'Man’s inhumanity to man causes countless thousands to 
mourn.’ 

“If I can be the means of infusing a little 
more humanitarianism in the relationships of life I 
shall feel that I have not lived in vain. To more ef- 
fectually carry out my plan I am going to ask my 
father to purchase for me a newspaper in that portion 
of Ohio I have named. Elbert will conduct the busi- 
ness end of the enterprise. Now to another phase of 
the affair, and *not the least important,” said Marcella, 
earnestly. “Why cannot you come with us, Ralph?” 

“Though this is a surprise wholly unexpected, I in- 
dorse your ideas so cordially that I would do almost 
anything to aid in the enterprise you have outlined, 
but how do you propose to utilize me.” 

“We would need an editor, wouldn’t we?” 

“To be sure, but I had supposed that you — ” 

“No, you are wrong. I think one may do a great 
many things for which he thinks himself unfitted, if he 
will but try, but to carry out the work I have in view 
and occupy the editorial tripod at one and the same 
time is more than I care to undertake, or feel equal 
to. I think by invoking your aid in an editorial capac- 
ity we can build up a newspaper plant that will advance 
the cause of humanity and be a credit to those who are 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


I 4 r 

connected with it. I do not want to present the 
project to you in a stronger light than the facts will 
justify, but I feel warranted in saying that my father 
will do as I shall request of him in this matter, for he 
has an unfaltering love for his old home and is inter- 
ested in any work that tends to unite the world in 
truth, love and harmony.” 

“Marcella, you aim is worth making an effort to at- 
tain. While I enjoy my present position, I am not so 
firmly attached to it as to feel that it is the only field in 
which I can labor successfully. I am interested in you 
and the work you are striving so earnestly to perform 
and I will call on you this evening, hoping to be able 
to tell you that I can arrange my affairs so as to be 
able to benefit by this new experience.” 

“Ralph, I appreciate the interest you take in the 
work I am endeavoring to accomplish. If we can suc- 
cessfully carry out a plan to employ the surplus labor, 
curtail the liquor evil, establish true civil service re- 
form and just taxation, we and our children will not 
have to bear the heavy burdens and endure the terrible 
anxiety caused by financial panics. We must prove 
ourselves worthy of liberty which Lincoln worked so 
earnestly to maintain for us and exert every energy to 
change the trend of commercial conditions which 
threaten to cause the disaster our great war president 
foresaw when he said, “I see in the near future a 
crisis approaching, which unnerves me and causes me 


142 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result 
of the war corporations have been enthroned ; an era 
of corruption in high places will follow. The money 
power will attempt to prolong its reign by working on 
the prejudices of the people. All the wealth will be 
aggregated in a few hands, and the republic will be 
destroyed.” 

“Ralph,” said Rebecca, “we will all .be pleased to 
have you come to dinner.” 

“I will be glad to accept your kind invitation, Re- 
becca, as it will give me an opportunity to have a visit 
with my interesting little friends, Catharine and Nicho- 
las, before we discuss methods to compel belief in the 
justice of the cause Marcella has outlined, and, of 
course, I want to see our young statesman.” 

Ralph referred to another little son who was born to 
Elbert and Rebecca in Chicago. At Marcella’s earnest 
solicitation he was permitted by his parents to bear the 
name of the great American, Abraham Lincoln, who, 
on account of his tender sympathy for those who were 
heavily burdened, Marcella idealized above all others. 
Marcella said, “Ralph, I am glad you remember about 
our little Lincoln, who, by his pleasant disposition and 
friendly feeling to everyone, is proving himself worthy 
of bearing the name we love so well.” 

Ralph replied, “I am interested in all that interests 
you and in all that pertains to the work you are so 
earnestly endeavoring to accomplish, and I am quite 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


143 


convinced the future will respond to your efforts, 
though I am afraid I will be divided in my allegiance, 
giving less thought to the cause you advocate than to 
the originator of it.” 

“But you should not,” said Marcella. 

“Well, that is a matter we will discuss later,” re- 
sponded Ralph. 


CHAPTER XII. 


COLUMBIANA COUNTY, OHIO. 

“The people are seldom wrong in their opinions; in their 
sentiments they are never mistaken.” — Junius. 

In the office of the “Leetonia Reporter,” at Dee- 
tonia, Ohio, on May 27th, Ralph Lower had just 
completed reading the proof of the last article that was 
needed before the anxious printers could get their 
forms to press. He had allied himself with Marcella’s 
project, and, with heart and soul enlisted in the work, 
he was making an impression for good upon the peo- 
ple who came within the sphere of his influence. 

Elbert and his family, accompanied by Marcella, had 
located in Columbiana County in the fall of 1897, an( ^ 
the latter had been unsparing of her mental and physi- 
cal force in promulgating her views for the amend- 
ment of burdensome conditions among the people, and 
she felt much encouraged by the sentiment that every- 
where met her. While looking through the exchanges 
one day, she picked up a copy of the “Pittsburg 
Times,” and had her attention attracted to glowing 
headlines, which read, “Beauty Married to Millions.” 
Delving into the article so conspicuously placed, she 
read of the marriage of Willie Tipton Gambill, her 
school friend and coadjutor in the work of social 
amelioration, at her home, Green Glen, in Roanoke, 
144 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


145 


Virginia, to George Dubois of Dubois, Pennsylvania, 
the latter also a friend to whom the attention of the 
reader has hitherto been directed. After an elaborate 
pen picture of the lovely bride, it noted the fact that 
the groom had been so successful in the conduct of the 
extensive business of his uncle, that the latter had 
bequeathed him a fortune of eight millions, which, by 
careful management, George had increased to twelve 
millions. 

That Marcella should have felt that an ardent sup- 
porter had dropped from the ranks was natural, but 
this feeling was dispelled a few days later by the receipt 
of a cordial letter from Willie, who expressed deep re- 
gret that she had not been permitted to have Marcella 
at her side when taking the important step that had 
opened up to her new influences and interests in life. 
George feeling the need of rest, they had determined 
upon a trip to the Orient, having Japan especially in 
mind, from which they anticipated much pleasure, but 
however remote or in whatever climes they might be, 
they would not grow oblivious to the interests Mar- 
cella was seeking to subserve and in spirit -would be 
with her in her work, ever willing to contribute by 
voice and act to the consummation she sought. Upon 
their return they would apply themselves assiduously 
to the work and would do everything in their power to 
improve the conditions of the large force of men work- 
ing for them in the lumber camps and coal mines of 

10 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


146 

Dubois. That they were as much interested in these 
questions as they had been before Fortune had smiled 
so abundantly upon them, and with the improved and 
enlarged opportunities that were offered they hoped 
to accomplish great good. 

Upon their coming to Ohio Elbert had secured for 
Marcella two of the oldest newspapers in Columbiana 
County. One, the “Independent Register” of Colum- 
biana, had been a Republican paper, without variation 
from party principles, for twenty-eight years, and the 
other, the “Leetonia Reporter,” had promulgated 
Democratic doctrine for a quarter of a century. Ralph 
and Marcella mapped out an independent policy for 
the two papers. At first the subscribers did not take 
kindly to it. They had been imbibing their political 
faiths from the strongest of partisan fountain-heads, 
but when they found that the welfare of the community 
and of each individual was most earnestly desired by 
those interested in the conduct of the papers, Republi- 
cans, Democrats and Populists gave generous sup- 
port, making it apparent that the prevailing sentiment, 
however divided along party lines, was unanimous for 
whatever would advance the public good. 

Qne day Marcella formed the acquaintance of 
Mathias Nolf, one of the most progressive farmers of 
the county, and a strong Republican, who declined to 
give his support to either paper, on the ground that 
they were opposed to his principles, and therefore not 
entitled to his encouragement or countenance. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


H 7 


Marcella inquired if he believed in Lincoln and rev- 
erenced his memory, as did the great majority of 
Americans. He said that he did, and that he was de- 
voted to the interests of the old soldiers, who defended 
the Union, and, when the war was over, had found it 
so difficult to regain a foothold in civil life, among 
those who had remained at home and availed them- 
selves of the opportunities to gain wealth. 

“I have never, in any way, been associated with the 
Populist party,” said Marcella, “but I love Lincoln 
above all others who appear in our nation’s roll of 
honor, and I am devoted to the old soldiers, the coun- 
try’s debt to whom can never be repaid. My aim in life 
is to live up to the great ideas enunciated by Lincoln in 
his Gettysburg speech, when he said : ‘Four score and 
seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this con- 
tinent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated 
to the proposition that all men were created equal. 
Now, we are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
- whether that nation or any other nation, so conceived 
and dedicated, can long endure. We are on a great 
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a 
portion of that field as a final resting place for those 
who gave their lives that the nation might live. It is 
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

“ ‘But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we can- 
not consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The 
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


148 

consecrated it far above our poor power to add or 
detract. The world will little note nor long remember 
what we say here, but it can never forget what they 
did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated 
here to the unfinished work which they who fought 
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for 
us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining be- 
fore us, that from these honored dead we take Increased 
devotion to that cause they gave the last full measure 
of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these 
dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, under 
God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that 
government of the people, by the people and for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth.’ ” 

After a comparison of views, Marcella and Mr. Nolf 
discovered that they were not so wide apart in their 
views. They agreed that it was not right for the Popu- 
list to denounce the capitalist for no other reason than 
that he was possessed of wealth, nor was it right for 
the capitalist to bear down upon the wage-earner and 
be indifferent to his rights. It was the duty of both, by 
harmonious action, to strive for the elevation of hu- 
manity to a higher level. While Marcella remained in 
Columbiana County she had no warmer friend than 
the sturdy, honest farmer, Mathias Nolf. 

Elbert had spent much of his youth on his grand- 
father’s farm in the eastern part of the county ; there- 
fore he was well known, and, being related to many 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


I49 


of the oldest families throughout the county and dis- 
trict, was very successful in working up business for 
the papers. 

Shortly after Marcella’s installation in the printing 
business, and while she was alone one afternoon, Dr. 
Huston called to see Elbert. She had made his ac- 
quaintance in Omaha and knew that he had been a 
prominent attorney in Lincoln, Nebraska, who later 
had studied medicine, and was sojourning in Ohio, at 
his mother’s home, on account of poor health. Though 
Dr. Huston was almost a stranger to her, Marcella re- 
ceived him as a friend of Elbert’s and asked him to re- 
main until Elbert should arrive. Having met several 
years previous in the West, conversation naturally 
drifted in that direction. Dr. Huston was known to 
enjoy the good things of life and it was somewhat of a 
surprise to Marcella to hear from him a statement very 
similar to that made by her father regarding the evils 
that grew out of the liquor habit. The doctor said that 
he had stumped the state of Nebraska to defeat prohi- 
bition, and realized, when too late, that he had made a 
mistake. While the man who had formed the taste 
for liquor and kept it cultivated by years of use, would 
continue to drink and would find means, though in 
violation of law, to satisfy his appetite, prohibition 
would serve to prevent others with undeveloped appe- 
tites from forming the habit, and would keep in the 
proper channels of trade vast sums of money that were 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


150 

now dissipated in stimulants. While studying medi- 
cine in San Francisco, he had been a witness of the 
terrible suffering among the working people as a result 
of the excessive use of stimulants, and he felt that he 
would be untrue to himself if he did not throw what 
influence he had against the evil. 

He had been interested in silver mines and had 
worked very hard to make silver a dominant issue be- 
fore the people, but he could not but confess that the 
success of the white metal would not be of material 
benefit to the working people. It would enrich the 
silver mine owners, and as their purses grew more 
plethoric they would spend more money in pursuit of 
pleasure, and to the extent of their expenditures in 
this direction the public would be benefited. He fa- 
vored some plan actually in the interest of the work- 
ing people, based upon a curtailment of the liquor 
evil. 

Marcella said that the work he outlined was the 
work to which she had consecrated herself and it was 
an encouragement to her to meet one who had had 
opportunities for extended observation who agreed 
with her, and she briefly laid before him the plan she 
had mapped out to amend oppressive conditions. The 
doctor indorsed her ideas, but had his doubts about 
her securing a general indorsement. 

Marcella would not be discouraged. She had 
weighed the possible against the impossible, and while 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


151 

realizing the immensity of the evils she sought to over- 
throw, she hoped, under Divine Providence, to be in- 
strumental in improving conditions. In furtherance 
of her aims, she became a member of the Columbia 
Grange. She found that while the farmers were very 
anxious to have a policy adopted that would favor the 
producing classes, they did not think that the mercan- 
tile and manufacturing classes, especially the gold 
Republicans, would agree to a plan really in the inter- 
est of the people. 

She determined to satisfy herself upon this point, and 
to prove, as she thought she could, that all Americans 
were interested in and willing to stand for the better- 
ment of humanity. She went to Nebraska to learn the 
sentiment of the people there and found that the kind- 
hearted, broad-minded westerners, with few excep- 
tions, would subscribe to a policy, as Mr. John 
A. Creighton of Omaha said, that was honestly in the 
interest of the people. Mr. Creighton is the brother 
of Mr. Edward Creighton, who assisted so greatly in 
the development of the West by building the telegraph 
system from Omaha to the Pacific coast. Mr. John 
A. Creighton has built and endowed a college, a hos- 
pital and a church in Omaha, and is a worthy repre- 
sentative of the vim and vigor that have been so ef- 
fective in the development of our vast realm beyond 
the Mississippi. 

It was the earnest plea for “Honest Legislation” by 


152 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Moorfield Storey of Boston, which first aroused Mar- 
cella as a representative of her generation to take active 
measures, to stand for the rights of the masses on 
whose welfare the security of society depends. 

It was during the summer of 1894, when the armies 
of the commonwealth were going to Washington to 
plead for the opportunity to work, and the great strike 
at Chicago was occurring, which proved that there 
were evils in our political system, which must be rem- 
edied, or cause us to fail in our duty as American citi- 
zens in upholding the great principle “Equal rights for 
all” upon which our government is founded, or stand 
more deeply branded than any other people, for our 
opportunities are greater, that Mr. Storey made the an- 
nual address to the American Bar Association at Sara- 
toga. His subject was the “American Legislature.” Mr. 
Storey vividly portrayed the evils which exist in our 
legislative system and entreated the American Bar As- 
sociation as men who exercised the strongest influence 
on the enactment of our laws, to stand for measures 
which would make our government honest and elevate 
humanity. He said, “I am not an alarmist, the most 
sanguine among you has not more confidence than I 
have in the judgment and good sense of the American 
people. But how much lower must we sink before 
we commence to rise? Is there not danger that we 
may let the disease of political dishonesty go so far 
that the only remedy will be revolution.” 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


153 


After returning from the West Marcella wrote to Mr. 
Storey and recalled to him the fact that in a previous 
letter, written before either national convention had 
been held, she had predicted the success of the Republi- 
cans and had foretold the complications that would en- 
sue from the prosecution of a war with Spain in the in- 
terest of Cuban independence, and had submitted as a 
fair proposition that instead of taxing every man, 
woman and child to carry on a war for humanity’s sake 
in Cuba, it would be better to make an equivalent ef- 
fort in the cause of humanity at home ; that there were 
more people suffering more terrible misery and degra- 
dation in the two cities of New York and Chicago 
than in the entire island of Cuba. She asked Mr. 
Storey’s opinion relative to her plan to attain better 
conditions for the people of the United States, which 
plan she outlined to him. His reply was of the char- 
acter to have been anticipated — very kind and encour- 
aging. 

To the ministers and lawyers of Leetonia Marcella 
went, and sought their indorsement of a plan to give 
the surplus labor employment, curtail the liquor evil, 
establish true civil service reform and just taxation. 
Finding all in accord with her views and desirous of 
improved conditions, she again wrote Mr. Storey and 
asked him to head a list of those who would subscribe 
to the doctrine enunciated. He again replied kindly, 
saying that while he appreciated the magnitude of the 


154 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


task she had undertaken, its magnitude did not detract 
from its merit and he was willing to attest, in the man- 
ner indicated, his sympathy with her efforts. She 
thereupon secured the following indorsement of her 
plan : 

Moorfield Storey, Boston President American Bar Assn. 

1895-96; Chairman Nat. Gold 
Democrat Com. 1896. 

C. D. Dickinson, Leetonia Lawyer, Republican. 

O. B. Jones, Leetonia Methodist Minister. 

John B. Morgan, Leetonia Lawyer, Republican. 

John H. Zinn, Leetonia Lutheran Minister. 

W. E. Warren, Leetonia Lawyer, Democrat. 

C. W. Schmick, Leetonia Prest. First Nat . Bank and Cherry 

Valley Iron Works. 

H. L. Snyder, Leetonia Dry Goods Merchant. 

Clayton W. Eldredge, Leetonia.... Presbyterian Minister. 

W. J. McKeefrey, Leetonia Secy. Salem Iron Co., Pittsburg, 

and McKec-frey & Co. Iron 
Furnace, Leetonia. 

Thomas P. Hynes, Leetonia Employee Penn. Railway Co. 

Charles Bonsall, Salem Buckeye Engine Co. 

Salem Daily News, Salem Republican. 

Salem Daily Herald, Salem Democrat. 

J. M. Hole, Salem Physician. 

C. W. Garver, Salem Book Binder. 

H. G. Taylor, Salem Shoe Dealer. 

Charles Murphy, Salem Clothier. 

A. W. Taylor, Salem Lawyer. 

Mrs. M. B. Erwin, Salem 

J. W. Moore, Leetonia ..Supt. of Schools. 

Firestone Bros., Lisbon Bankers. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


155 


Journal Pub. Co., Lisbon Independent. 

W. S. Potts, Lisbon Proprietor Ohio Patriot, Demo- 

cratic; oldest newspaper in 
Ohio. 

O. L. Jackson, Leetonia Cherry Valley Iron Works. 

R. P. Hartshorn, Leetonia Cashier First Nat. Bank. 

W, D. McKeefrey, Leetonia V. P. Salem Iron Co., and Mc- 

Keefrey & Co. Iron Furnace, 
Leetonia. 

W. J. Houston, Columbiana Physician. 

W. H. Freed, Leetonia Supt. Waterworks. 

A. Clark, Leetonia Saloonkeeper. 

Ed. D. Lanaghan, Leetonia Marshal. 

M. B. Adams, Leetonia Merchant. 

P. F. Vollnogle, New Waterford, Druggist and Stationer. 

J. H. Koch, New Waterford Firm of J. H. & J. Koch, Dry 

Goods Merchants. 

Geo. J. Koch, New Waterford. . ..Firm of Koch Bros., Carriage 

Builders. 

Chas. E. Ink, Columbiana Druggist and Stationer. 

Geo. H. Shingler, Columbiana. . .Publisher Columbiana Ledger. 

E. J. Whitehead, Columbiana. . ..Physician. 

J. A. Greenamyer, Leetonia Mayor, Democrat. 

E. F. Moure, Lisbon Prop. Buckey State Republican. 

J. S. Greenamyer, Leetonia Of Greenamyer & Son, Insurance 

Agents. 

John Floding, Leetonia Of Floding&Sitler, Meat Dealers. 

Chas. J. Spatholt, Leetonia Of Spatholt Bros., Hardware 

Dea ers. 

A.J. Hanahan, Leetonia City Clerk. 

Robert Treat Paine, Boston Lawyer, Capitalist and Labor’s 

Strongest Advocate. 

Marcella found no class of people more willing to 
curtail the evils attendant upon the use of intoxicants 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


156 

than the saloon-keepers. There was a large number in 
Leetonia. They confessed to a dislike of the business 
and knew that it was productive of much misery, but 
the law recognized it as a legitimate occupation and 
it was so difficult to find other means of making a liv- 
ing. They had families dependent upon them, and to 
provide for them they took what came to hand. 

On the afternoon of the last Thursday of May, in the 
edition of the “Leetonia Reporter” then going to 
press, Marcella had outlined the plan she had formu- 
lated for balancing conditions honestly, so that each 
one made in the image of his Maker would have a fair 
opportunity to live. Ralph asked her how she ex- 
pected to carry on her work, to which she replied : “I 
think we may accept the people of Columbiana County 
as a fair example of what may be found in other en- 
lightened communities. We know how they feel upon 
the topics that are nearest our hearts. We know that 
they are in accord with the central idea that things 
are not as they should be with the people at large, and, 
what is of most importance, we know that without 
reference to creed, condition or political bias, they are 
for any plan that will ameliorate conditions. Why may 
not this same sentiment prevail elsewhere? Why 
should it not be very generally prevalent? I think it 
is. I think my experience here warrants the belief. I 
will have to find the way to get the entire nation awak- 
ened to my plan, but I shall not grow discouraged at 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


157 


the magnitude of the undertaking. I want to make 
representative government a success, such as the 
founders of the nation contemplated. I want to estab- 
lish a clearing-house where those who require assist- 
ance can come and those who desire to help humanity 
can go for that purpose. Then those who have been 
wounded in the battle of life will have a place of sure 
succor open to them, and, being healed of their 
wounds, they will be ready to set forth anew upon the 
pathway of life. 

“I was very much interested in the June issue of 
‘‘Our Dumb Animals,” that came with the exchanges 
this morning, it being the organ of the National Hu- 
mane Society. No one has done more than President 
George T. Angell of the society named to develop 
humane sentiment in this world of ours, and I am 
going to Boston to see if he does not think a plan 
such as I have outlined would obtain the desired end 
of ‘Glory to God, Peace on Earth, Kindness, Justice 
and Mercy to every living creature.’ 

“My purpose is to inagurate a system that will serve 
to uplift humanity and improve its chances in this 
world and in the world to come, for by taking care of 
people in the present we place them in condition to 
listen to the important truths that bear upon their 
future. I would have the country divided up into 
thirty-three sections, each section to be presided over 
by the resident thereof who has given the best practical 


158 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

demonstration of his love of his fellow man. I suggest 
this number of sections because Christ, at whose birth 
‘Peace on earth, good-will to men’ was announced, 
lived upon earth thirty-three years, while completing 
the purpose for which the Father sent Him. Then a 
president and council of twelve men would direct the 
workings of the general organization, which would 
be based upon the commandment of Christ : ‘Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and 
thy whole soul, and thy neighbor as thyself.’ The 
president and council of twelve of the strongest and 
most humane men of our country would typify Christ 
and his apostles. Each of the thirty-three sections 
would be subdivided in such manner as experience 
would indicate for the best. Everyone who wished to 
render assistance and each one who required it would 
go to a representative of this organization, which 
would be so systematized that everyone’s effort to as- 
sist his fellow men would not fail of fruition. In this 
way no one in our country Would suffer from the self- 
ishness of society, as now. Gradually this system could 
be expanded until it took in the whole world, for 

‘In Faith and Hope the world will disagree, 

But all mankind’s concern is charity’ (love). 

Thus will the message ‘Peace on earth, good-will to 
men,’ which came from on high to those made in the 
image of their Creator, be fulfilled.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


BOSTON. 

“And ne’er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, 

While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls a wave.” 

— Robert Treat Paine. 

It was in the summer of 1898 that Marcella reached 
Boston, commonly known as the “Hub of the Uni- 
verse,” and by many denominated “The Athens of 
America.” These names are descriptive of the city’s 
peculiarities and may be explained to the reader in 
this wise : In the older part of Boston the streets radi- 
ate from the vicinity of Faneuil Hall like the spokes of 
a wheel, the Hall being the hub, and this has given 
rise to the appellation first above used, which is very 
appropriate, as all will attest who have ever been there. 
Its likeness to the ancient Athens is found in its inter- 
est in the cause of education, in whatever tends to 
broaden the intellect and advance policies that will be 
beneficial to mankind. The people of this great city, 
whose influence has so greatly affected for good the 
destinies of the nation dedicated to liberty, may be 
said to be the personification of Lincoln’s motto, 
“ With charity for all ; with malice toward none ; with 
firmness to do right as we see it.” 

While the press and people of other sections of our 
country indifferently allow the unjust conditions of 
159 


i6o 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


commerce to crush humanity, and give to the great 
savior of our nation credit only for freeing the slaves 
as a war measure, the people of Boston, by honoring 
the great Lincoln with a. beautiful statue in the heart 
of their interesting city, representing the great emanci- 
pator breaking the shackles of the slave, seem to in- 
terpret correctly the character of him who, witnessing 
with horror the sale of slaves from the block in New 
Orleans, declared, “While I live, no effort on my part 
will be spared to stamp out this terrible evil.” 

To Marcella’s disappointment, she found that Presi- 
dent Angell of the Humane Society was resting from 
his arduous work at his summer home in New Hamp- 
shire. Earnestly, for weeks, she sought for light that 
would guide her footsteps through the tortuous ways 
her sense of duty had mapped out. She met Mr. 
Moorfield Storey, he was very much interested in 
wrestling with the questions that had been piled on 
top of our complicated national problems by the Span- 
ish war ; but Mr. Storey was very kind to Marcella, and 
was willing by any means in his power to assist her to 
form a rallying point for those interested in standing 
for an honest government, and the rights of humanity. 

Lincoln’s personal associates say his greatness con- 
sisted in his unquestioned honesty, and his love for 
humanity. 

The high compliment is paid to Mr. Storey by all 
who know him, that he is a man who is absolutely hon- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


161 


est, and devoted to any effort that he believes will help 
his fellow men. Being one of the most brilliant and 
distinguished attorneys of our times, he is a worthy 
representative of the Storey family, which has given 
so many noted members to the legal profession. It 
was one of Mr. Storey’s ancestors who related the fol- 
lowing anecdote on a stage coach, running in early 
days between Boston and Washington. Judge Storey 
said, ‘‘The members of the Supreme Court dined to- 
gether and ate very abstemiously while they discussed 
the cases under decision, and only drank wine on days 
when it rained, but occasionally Chief Justice Mar- 
shall would say, ‘Brother Storey, will you go to 
the window and see if it is raining?’ If I reported 
that it was very pleasant outside, the Chief Justice 
would say, ‘That is all the better; as our jurisdiction 
covers a large extent of territory, it is safe to say that 
it is raining in some part of it.’ ” 

Mr. Thomas Murphy, the president of the Central 
Labor Union, was very much interested in her work 
and was favorable to any plan which would peaceably 
solve the industrial problems by which the country was 
confronted. Marcella had told him the result of her 
efforts and had pointed out, as a result of her in- 
quiries, that the national bankers would gladly agree 
to any plan that had the merit of reason and promised 
to solve the labor question. They realized that the se- 
curity of society rested upon the welfare of the masses. 
ji 


162 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Mr. Murphy advised Marcella to see Mr. Robert Treat 
Paine, who, he said, was very wealthy and an aristo- 
crat, but than whom no man in Boston was more de- 
voted to the welfare of the working people. He (Mr. 
Paine) was president of Wells’ Memorial, which had 
been erected as a place of meeting for organized labor, 
as well as a monument to Mr. Wells, and also ran a co- 
operative bank for the working people, besides build- 
ing homes for them, and, in fact, doing whatever else 
his wisdom could devise for their betterment. 

Marcella suggested that this Mr. Paine must be a 
worthy descendent of the Robert Treat Paine who 
signed the Declaration of Independence, to which Mr. 
Murphy replied: “If every man of influence and 
wealth was as interested in the welfare of the working 
people as is Mr. Paine, the great principles of liberty 
which the Declaration of Independence decrees would 
not be endangered.” He volunteered the further in- 
formation that Mr. Paine was one of the most influen- 
tial silver men in the state, who was devoted to the 
welfare of the people, while Mr. Moorfield Storey was 
one of the strongest gold men in Massachusetts, who 
was interested in the uplifting of the masses. 

Toward the end of July the Catholic Total Abstin- 
ence Association convened in Boston. This is the or- 
ganization in which Archbishop Ireland, the great tem- 
perance advocate, is so deeply interested. Reverend 
Father Cleary of Minneapolis, the president of the as- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


163 

sociation, permitted Marcella to explain her plan to 
the convention, which had assembled in Faneuil Hall, 
“the cradle of liberty. ” The address was received with 
approval, many of the delegates agreeing that the plan 
proposed was a practical solution of the liquor prob- 
lem. 

In August Marcella went to the city residence of 
Mr. Robert Treat Paine, one block from Boston Com- 
mon, on Joy street. He was not at home and she was 
invited to call again, which she did on the following 
Wednesday, and was fortunate in meeting Mr. Paine, 
who is a man of commanding presence and impresses 
one as the personification of integrity. He was very 
courteous to Marcella, but, being busily occupied 
with matters pertaining to the conference of the Chi- 
cago Civic Federation, which had been called for the 
18th of that month, at Saratoga, he invited her to meet 
him at his summer residence at Magnolia, the follow- 
ing week. 

Pursuant to this appointment, she visited Magnolia, 
a lovely spot overlooking the ocean, and there had the 
pleasure of being made welcome by Mr. Paine* and 
his family. She found Mr. Paine interested, as she 
was, in all matters relating to the human family. On 
the broad veranda they discussed the vital questions 
upon which is concentrated the attention of everyone 
to a greater or less degree, while before them extended 
the broad ocean, whose waters gave forth the moisture 


164 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

that nourishes the vitality of the encircling continents, 
whose people are enacting the drama of life in our 
generation. Marcella said the ocean was typical of 
life, with its storms, its grave disasters and its seasons 
of calm, but of the ocean’s perils we were forewarned 
and took our measures accordingly, while upon the 
land there were pitfalls, the presence of which none 
could foresee and from which, when once precipitated 
thereinto, there seemed no escape. She concluded that 
life upon the broad bosom of the ocean was more se- 
cure. Upon the land the guns of monopoly were en- 
trenched behind a bulwark of law and supported by the 
influence of society, whereby the lesser mercantile en- 
terprises were destroyed with as much indifference as 
was the fleet of Cervera by our well fed and carefully 
disciplined sailors, who fought an antagonist rendered 
almost hopeless by the inequalities of opportunity and 
rendered unserviceable by being plied with liquor, and 
therefore at the mercy of the merciless, for in war there 
is no mercy between combatants. When Cervera’s 
fleet came out of Santiago to make a mad rush for 
safety the crews knew that the powerful ships of the 
enemy were as ready to run them down as was the 
trained hound to course the rabbit. When the destruc- 
tion of the Spanish fleet occurred, causing the loss of 
the lives of Spanish sailors and many million dollars’ 
worth of war material, as a nation we rejoiced with the 
same enthusiasm that marked the conduct of the an- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 1 65 

cient Romans when viewing the games of the Coli- 
seum. 

The terrible scene which took place upon the ocean 
to the north of us, at the same time that our war for 
humanity caused such an inhuman spectacle to the 
south, represents the inhumanity of the speculators 
and gamblers on our stock exchanges, who by mental 
force absorb the wealth of the farmers and the work- 
ingmen, the producing classes of the nation, bringing 
unbearable suffering upon the masses. The money 
manipulators in our cities are as inhuman as were the 
sailors on the Bourgogne, when they do not hesitate 
to use their superior faculties to manipulate our legis- 
lation, so that they can hoard the nation’s wealth, 
thereby causing misery and degradation in the slums 
of every city of the land. The nation was founded 
upon the principle that every man was entitled to a 
fair opportunity to earn his living by the sweat of his 
brow, and when this opportunity is taken away from 
him it is an injustice to him and an attack upon the 
foundations of government, that if persisted in must 
ultimately cause the destruction of the temple of lib- 
erty. Is it any wonder that Lincoln should have said 
that he saw in the near future a concentration of wealth 
that would threaten the safety of the republic ? 

Mr. Paine asked if it was possible to make condi- 
tions fair. 

Marcella replied : “As with the question of slavery, 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


1 66 

either the unjust methods used in centralizing wealth, 
by a fair understanding on both sides, will cease, or the 
absorption will continue until the sons of Columbia 
will be what his revolutionary ancestor said they would 
not be, 

— ‘slaves, 

While the earth bears a plant or the sea rolls its waves.’ ” 

Mr. Paine desired Marcella’s views as to the meas- 
ures necessary to avoid such a result. 

“I will not assume the responsibility of saying that 
the blame rests especially upon any one class,” was 
her reply. “We have before our eyes the fruits of mis- 
doing, and perhaps no one class is more answerable 
than another. They may be inherited evils, as was 
slavery, which was forced upon the ancestors of the 
southern people by the English government. But we 
have come to the crucial test of representative govern- 
ment, and the horns of the dilemma are presented For 
our choosing. Either by wise measures we must ad- 
just conditions fairly to all, or opposing forces will 
collide and a disaster will ensue that will appall all 
hearts.” 

“How can the approaching crisis be avoided?” 
asked Mr. Paine. 

Before Marcella had opportunity to reply their at- 
tention was attracted to a yacht in the offing, which, 
without atmospheric disturbance and upon a sea as 
calm as a mill pond, was being carried by the tide 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


167 


upon the rocks. All awaited the result, ready to ren- 
der any possible assistance in case of wreck. The 
alarmed watchers soon noted the fact that a small boat 
had been lowered from the yacht, and by a cable at- 
tached to the latter, the rowers in the former were ex- 
erting themselves to the utmost to tow the larger boat 
out of danger. They could not overcome the force of 
the tide and the yacht was momentarily drawing 
nearer to the hidden rocks, when a second boat was 
lowered and its occupants added their efforts to those 
of the rowers who had preceded them, with the result 
so ardently desired. The drift was overcome and the 
yacht was towed into safe waters. 

“This incident,” said Marcella, “is illustrative of 
life, where the dangers of shipwreck are . so many and 
so often unforeseen. Our ship of state is drifting with 
the tide, and though she is a stanch craft, whose tim- 
bers were carefully laid by our ancestors, she is get- 
ting dangerously near to the twin rocks, plutocracy 
and socialism, either of which may pierce her hull and 
make of her a worthless wreck. This disaster can only 
be avoided by the intelligent and humane people of the 
nation getting together and taking charge of the helm 
and so directing the masses as to admit of their get- 
ting her into safer waters, as we have seen done in the 
case of the yacht. If the republic is to stand, our first 
duty is to strengthen the foundation on which our 
government is built — Equal Rights for All. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


1 68 

“As equal conditions do not exist, our first duty will 
be to bring them about, and in such way that no in- 
justice will be done. To stamp out the evil of slavery 
we shed the blood of 600,000 Americans — to say noth- 
ing of the wounded — and sunk an amount of treasure 
that would have purchased every slave at the highest 
market price and all the developed wealth of our coun- 
try. At that time we were a nation of but 35,000,000 
people and the wealthiest section of the country was 
the South, which was bankrupted by the war, yet in 
thirty years we have paid off the larger portion of our 
enormous war debt, besides paying, as a result of the 
conflict, an annual pension role of $150,000,000. 

“If, out of our complications with Spain in the cause 
of humanity, we had become involved in a general war 
with European nations, we had limitless assets to draw 
upon, greater than any nation on earth. A thought 
that has impressed itself upon my mind is this : War 
is the world’s most terrible curse, the strongest surviv- 
ing evidence that we are descended from barbarians. 
If we can mulct the people in taxes to carry on war, 
why may we not foreswear the mailed hand and adopt 
measures that will ensure peace and give to humanity 
its just opportunities? 

“The law of God and common sense teach us that 
the earth and the fullness thereof belong to man. By 
securing the earth, by right of purchase, we will solve 
vast problems, among them being the tenement house 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


169 

question, which cries to heaven for a solution and de- 
nounces the American people as apathetic to the verge 
of cruelty and inhumanity. The ‘Detroit Journal,’ 
one of the most conservative of Republican papers, in 
reviewing ‘McTeague,’ by Frank Norris, says: 
‘Many of the critics have pronounced this book a hor- 
ror. They say it is brutal, demoralizing, indefensibly 
wicked and corrupting. In it is no note of human 
.sympathy ; nothing but a long-drawn wail of misery, a 
groan of anguished humanity. It is not elevating. It 
does not help to make the world any brighter or bet- 
ter. Cruel cynicism runs unrestrained ; colorless pes- 
simism lends cold monotony to its pages. We concur 
in none of these drastic conclusions. The painter who 
depicts in colors the dying gladiator does not produce 
a morbid picture. He paints to life as he sees it. The 
writer who describes the battle and the harrowing 
scenes that follow it does not appeal to the animal 
alone. He presents the awful scene of carnage and de- 
struction as he views it. Norris assumes only to de- 
scribe the lives of the coarse habitues of the tenements. 
They exist in every large city. We have his characters 
here in Detroit, environed differently, but nevertheless 
just as repulsive, just as abandoned and just as un- 
human as are his San Francisco characters. Me- 
Teagues are known in every city. We see them on the 
streets, in their hovels and in their occupations, if we 
but take the pains to look for them/ 


170 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


“Is it any wonder that sociologists tell us that we 
have just as large a criminal class as we cause to exist 
by our indifference to the rights of humanity? My 
proposition is a comprehensive one, but we are a coun- 
try of boundless resources, dedicated to the cause of 
liberty and humanity, and the time is rapidly approach- 
ing when we will realize the burning necessity for the 
adoption of measures that will do justice to each indi- 
vidual. The government could issue treasury notes 
redeemable at certain periods in gold, and, taking the 
prices of January I, 1899, as a basis, buy all the land, 
all the mines, all the oil wells and all the products 
stored in mother earth, for the use and benefit of her 
children. ‘The vast cost?’ Yes, to be sure, but 
consider the vast outpouring of money that we have 
been guilty of, for purposes of questionable value. 
The moneys that, as a nation, we have literally thrown 
away would accomplish the purpose suggested. The 
government could keep the highways in order, protect 
the forests of timber and control the water supply, so 
that there would be neither floods nor drouths. Under 
a fair adjustment the farmer would pay no more in 
rent than he now pays in taxes. Being paid the full 
market price for their holdings, those who claim the 
land now would not be losers by the transaction. 

“The rents from the land and the revenues from 
the mines and oil wells would reimburse the govern- 
ment and pay for all public improvements. The opera- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


171 

tors of the mines and the wells would be fairly com- 
pensated for their work and vast revenues would ac- 
crue to the government from the output. As the rail- 
roads, telegraph and cable system, and the express 
companies are now conducted they are a heavy burden 
upon the people. The government could purchase 
these properties at their watered stock prices, thereby 
insuring innocent holders against harm. The revenues 
would amply justify the purchase, .serve to keep up 
these enterprises and equip them with the most ap- 
proved appliances and have them operated in the in- 
terest of the people. When it was made apparent that 
the building of the Nicaragua Canal was a commer- 
cial necessity, there would be no railroad lobby to pre- 
vent the necessary legislative enactments.” 

Mr. Paine, who had been listening very intently, 
now injected the question : “How would you issue the 
money to attain these ends ?” 

“Just as you would issue money to carry on war, 
only the money that is spent in war is practically sunk, 
while the money issued to adjust conditions, as out- 
lined, would represent two values, the value of the 
security purchased and the security of the people to 
redeem the money in gold. Public improvements 
would employ the surplus labor. If necessary for this 
purpose, the government could issue money and re- 
deem it by taxation through the people who were being 
afforded a means of livelihood. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


172 

“To-day, under our narrow system of government, 
the countless multitudes who have no way to live must 
become parasites, attaching themselves to relatives 
who have been more fortunate or must subsist as de- 
pendents upon cold charity, doled out by the adminis- 
trators of public relief. 

“The national banking system, which develops greed 
in the lender and breeds a tendency to irresponsibility 
in the borrower, must realize in full on its assets and 
then be content with cutting coupons from such of its 
bonds as have not reached maturity. I do not wish to 
be understood as having any feeling against the bank- 
ers. Before either national convention was held Mr. 
Lyman J. Gage of the First National Bank of Chicago 
was my choice for Secretary of the Treasury. I knew 
him to be a man of probity and to be imbued with a 
disposition to be kindly, courteous to all classes. 
Though he has proposed, as the conservator of our 
finances, a plan for the issue of notes exclusively by 
national banks, which I look upon as class legislation 
and pernicious, he grew up in this banking system, 
which, in the evolution of our government, it seemed 
the best the people had the capacity to form. So much 
confidence have I in Mr. Gage's personal integrity, that 
under a changed system I believe the nation could find) 
no safer man than he to manage her finances. 

“When we live under such conditions that everyone 
will have the privilege of earning his bread by the 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


173 


sweat of his brow, there will be neither borrowing nor 
lending, in the sense we now understand it. Everyone 
will be in position to meet the expenses of living, from 
day to day, as he journeys down life’s pathway. If he 
will not work to live, having had the opportunity pre- 
sented to him, it will be no concern of society’s if he 
dies. The Treasury will be the great central bank of 
the government, with branches in the postoffices 
throughout the country, the latter being places of de- 
posit for earnings, whether great or small, equipped 
to do the same work with checks and drafts that is now 
performed by the national banks, and to issue orders 
for the transfer of money. This banking system would 
be as safe, based as it would be upon the people, as are 
the bonds at present redeemed through the people.” 

“While all men are born equal, all men are not en- 
dowed equally,” said Mr. Paine. “How would it be 
possible to avoid unequal conditions?” 

“Every person would be paid according to his ca- 
pacity, and some equitable method of determining his 
capacity could be devised, for as a whole the people 
are honest and desire to deal fairly by each other. The 
workingman would receive fair wages and the mental 
workers, those to whose wisdom we look for enlighten- 
ment and guidance, would be compensated in just pro- 
portion of their work. In this way the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence would be maintained. 
Qur forefathers who founded the nation ; with liberty 


174 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


as the basic principle, did not believe any more than we 
do to-day that every man was equally endowed. They 
believed as Christ declared nineteen centuries ago, 
‘Every laborer is worth his hire/ Those who fought 
to establish the principles of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence believed that all were entitled to a fair op- 
portunity to earn their living by physical or mental ef- 
fort, the officers to a recompense commensurate with 
their responsibilities, the civil officials to fair remune- 
ration, the soldiers to such pay as would provide a 
measure of comfort for those whom they h#.d left at 
home and the laborers to fair wages as measured by 
their capacity. 

“To-day we are confronting the crucial test of free 
government. By giving every man a fair chance to 
earn his living by work, we will maintain the principles 
for which our forefathers fought and paid in blood 
and treasure beyond computation. By refusing him 
this inherent right we are sowing the wind from which, 
in due course, we will reap the whirlwind.” 

“How would the afflicted be taken caie of, under this 
system ?” asked Mr. Paine. 

“I came to Boston more especially to consult with 
President Angell about a plan to that end,” said. Mar- 
cella. “If the work of uplifting society was systema- 
tized and an organization like a clearing-house was 
formed for this purpose, no effort for good would be 
lost, and everyone who was trampled upon in life’s bat- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


175 


tie would have opportunity to regain his feet. This 
organization would care for the criminals and the in- 
sane and help those who had fallen, in fact do every- 
thing possible to make less rough the journey through 
life for those who were afflicted/’ 

“How would the money be procured to carry on 
such an undertaking,” inquired Mr. Paine. 

“The profits from the food supply which the govern- 
ment would buy and control could be used to this 
end. All food would be pure and nutritious. Public 
kitchens co-uld be maintained and food delivered in 
steam-heated tins, palatably prepared. Proper food is 
absolutely necessary to develop the good that is within 
us, for it is to our system what coal is to the boiler 
which furnishes steam to the engine. You ask the 
stoker of an engine and he will tell you there is a vast 
difference in coal. Some is good for steam-making 
while another kind is almost valueless. 

“A heavy burden would be lifted from the mothers 
of our nation bv this plan. They could devote more 
time to their little ones, the future men and women 
of our nation ; they could do more toward beautifying 
their homes and rendering them attractive to their fam- 
ilies ; they could improve their minds and incite to 
higher ambitions those under their immediate care. 
Under this method the liquor business would come 
under the control of government and every possible 
safeguard could be thrown about it to lessen its mani- 


176 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

fest evils. Every workingman would receive just re- 
muneration and have reasonable hours of work. A 
pension system could be made a part of the plan, pro- 
viding for the retirement of employes at a stated age, 
after a specified term of service, at a rate of compensa- 
tion that would insure a fair measure of comfort for 
their declining years. The organization to do all this 
work should have for its guidance the Golden Rule — 

“ ‘Do unto others as ye would that they should do 
unto you/ 

“Pleasant clubs would be established and every ad- 
junct that would render the people mindful of their 
duties to themselves, to their families, to their neigh- 
bors and to their God.” 

“How would it be possible to get suitable men to 
carry out this policy, when so many of those in whom 
we place our trust and elevate to office prove to be 
corrupt ?” 

“For all offices that were not elective there would 
be a perfect civil service system, such a one as would 
not be subject to manipulation, as is the system now 
in vogue. Dishonesty by public officials is treason, 
and the penalty of treason is death, and the penalty 
should be inflicted. A dishonest public official is 
more dangerous to society than the house-breaker 
or the murderer and should be punished according 
to his deserts. If our government is not honest the 
people who live under it will not be honest, and no 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


1 77 


nation can stand under such circumstances. Civil em- 
ployes would be placed upon a retired list at an age 
when their powers gave evidence of declination, and 
this would remove that fear that is ever present with 
the wage worker who has passed the summit and be- 
gun the descent of becoming a charge upon someone 
in his declining years.” 

“Is a plan of this sort feasible?” 

“Why not? It is just as feasible for the people to 
form a trust for their own material advancement as 
it is for business men, merchants and manufacturers 
to form trusts to improve their profits. In this age 
of fierce competitive commercialism, business has had 
to rush along the trust road blazed by Mr. Rockefeller, 
until to-day, if measures are not taken to prevent dis- 
aster, the business of the nation, which is capitalized 
far beyond reason, will collapse, precipitating a com- 
mercial crisis compared with which the panic of 1893 
will be as nothing. Our last panic was intensified 
by the action of Baring Brothers & Company in with- 
drawing their visible assets from this country. This 
English banking concern had jeopardized their posi- 
tion by sinking a billion dollars in the Argentine 
Republic, and their fall was a demonstration of im- 
mense wealth coupled with poor judgment. Their col- 
lapse indicates that financial acumen, though thought 
to be an essential adjunct of the banking business, is 
not always so, and it not infrequently happens that 


12 


178 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

the banking concerns to which we pin our faith col- 
lapse like soap bubbles, though less harmlessly, for 
their downfall carries widespread distress. 

“The adjustment of the government to the needs 
of the people will save the trusts from the fall they 
deserve for overcapitalization. Private business will 
naturally swing into line with the government. Pro- 
prietors, instead of becoming bankrupt, as they in- 
evitably will in the next financial panic, which is as 
sure to come as that night follows day unless condi- 
tions are amended, will receive just compensation for 
their services in the management of the business which 
society supports.” 

“How would such a plan as this be brought about?” 

“In adjusting the government so as to accord to 
everyone the right he inherits from his Maker, and 
which is guaranteed him by the law of the land — that 
of having a fair opportunity to earn his living by 
physical or mental effort — we must get down to a 
basis of absolute integrity as between man and man. 
We must remember the first requisite of stable gov- 
ernment of the people, by the people and for the 
people is unfaltering integrity and faithfulness to every 
obligation. Heretofore the conditions have been 
grossly unjust to the masses, yet, since we have al- 
lowed these conditions to exist, in making a change 
we cannot repudiate the obligations which the sys- 
tem of society we have heretofore upheld has sanc- 
tioned. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


179 


“Since the close of the war for humanity in Cuba, 
men whose lives have been one continuous effort for 
the best interests of the world have questioned the 
judgment displayed by those in authority in heaping 
up responsibilities upon the people at large, and 
have directed attention, as a measure of protest, to 
the sage advice given in Washington’s farewell ad- 
dress, which may be said to be a keystone in the 
arch of free government. And with what result? 
The superior statesmen of this latter day have derided 
as obsolete this document, which will point the way 
to safety long after they have passed to that higher 
judgment seat, where absolute justice is meted out. 
It is well for us to consider how truly the Father of 
Our Country foresaw the injurious effects of control 
of government by political parties, rather than control 
of government by the people. In his farewell address 
Washington said: T have already intimated to you 
the danger of parties in the states, with particular ref- 
erence to the founding of them on geographical dis- 
criminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive 
view and warn you in the most solemn manner against 
the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This 
spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, 
having its root in the strongest passions of the hu- 
man mind. It exists under different shapes in all 
governments, more or less stifled, controlled or re- 
pressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen 


i8o 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst en- 
emy.’ 

“For forty years the southern Democratic party was 
supported by the masses of the North because of the 
fact that the policy of the party had as its underlying 
principle the Declaration of Independence, and no ex- 
ecutives more honestly administered the office of the 
presidency than did the southern Democratic leaders, 
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson and Polk. But 
the southerners overreached themselves in using the 
government to protect their personal interests, and a 
reaction set in that caused for them as terrible suffer- 
ing as any people ever underwent, and culminated 
in the great Civil War. Supplanting the southerners 
in their supremacy came the Republican party. As 
a result of its efforts, throughout a period of more 
than a third of a century we have been brought face 
to face with the most unequal conditions the country 
has ever known. In New York City we have men 
of fabulous wealth without accompanying responsibili- 
ties, as in England and other monarchical countries. 
In the same metropolis are men and women working 
as hard as human beings can work, in sweat shops and 
for a pittance so trifling as to occasion wonder that 
it will hold body and soul together. 

“Does not such an enormity in ‘the land of the free 
and the home of the brave’ cry to heaven and de- 
nounce the American people for their apathy in per- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. l8l 

mitting party machines, manipulated by party bosses, 
to produce such results? ‘Governments are instituted 
for, and derive their just powers from, the consent 
of the governed.’ At present the great political cam- 
paigns are financed by those who anticipate results in 
the way of legislation that will be beneficial to them. 
There are vast machines controlled by skillful manip- 
ulators who levy contributions, and these contribu- 
tions serve as a lubricant for the machines which have 
but one aim in view, to compel success for the party 
they represent. 

“The people must organize to overthrow the ma- 
chine. They must get together in the townships and in 
the cities and stand for a policy that will sweep special 
privilege seekers into deserved oblivion. Congress is 
but the servant of the people, or should be, and if 
there is any doubt upon this point it is within the 
power of the people to resolve it in their own favor. 

“We might dispense with that highly honorable 
drag upon the wheels of government, known as the 
Senate, which does not represent the people, and the 
opinions of whose members are but individual opin- 
ions. The United States Senate was founded on the 
British House of Lords, which the ‘grand old man’ 
of England, William Ewart Gladstone, considered an 
unnecessary adjunct to Parliament. If this branch 
of the government is continued it should elect its 
own presiding officer, and the vice-president, who 


182 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


Franklin said was of so little use that he should be 
denominated ‘His Superfluous Highness/ would be 
made the most useful member of government by pre- 
siding over the House of Representatives. Under this 
system the vice-president would represent the people 
directly. As at present an undue and unwholesome 
influence can be exerted to elect a speaker of the 
house, and at the behest of that influence he can be a 
great hindrance to necessary legislation. It would 
be a wise plan to re-elect public officials as long as 
they are faithful to the trust that is reposed in them. 
It would be well to have them retired on pay at an 
age limit, as is done with the justices of the Supreme 
Court. The vice-president, to preside over the house, 
should be a man of the highest legal ability and of 
unquestioned integrity. Liberal salaries should be 
paid to those who make and execute our laws. If 
a private corporation finds a man of ability who is 
qualified to transact its business, it pays him liberally, 
and, presumably, it finds it profitable to do so. The 
same rule might be applied with profit in govern- 
mental affairs. 

“ ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’ Every 
man, woman and child should take an interest in the 
affairs of government, for in this republic of ours it 
is a personal matter with each one of us. If every 
man and woman and the boys and girls of eighteen 
years of age were to join an organization in the town- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 183 

ships or wards where they reside, such organization 
to be for the people’s rights, and if each member were 
to contribute a small fee for initiation, say fifty cents, 
what a fund this would make toward the work of 
ameliorating conditions ! If the workingmen are pros- 
perous the farmer will secure good prices for his 
produce, and if the farmers and workingmen are both 
prosperous the business and professional men will 
thrive. If the farmers, the workingmen, the mer- 
chants and professional men would join a national 
association having for its purpose the ends outlined, 
and would contribute a dollar each to a national cam- 
paign fund, they would have a sum equal to any cor- 
ruption fund that could be raised to perpetuate the 
present unholy system. A report of receipts and dis- 
bursements would be made indicating the uses to 
which the fund had been applied.” 

In the discussion of these matters the time had 
flown so rapidly that before Marcella realized it train 
time had arrived. Mr. Paine had given close atten- 
tion to all that she had said and manifested a deep 
interest in her project, which involved so much the 
government their ancestors had assisted in founding. 
Through her mother Marcella was a descendant of 
General O’Hara, the officer on Lord Cornwallis’ staff 
who availed himself of the opportunity to surrender 
despotism to liberty, by surrendering at Yorktown the 
sword of Cornwallis to Washington. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


184 

After a hurried preparation she was driven rapidly 
through the beautiful New England scenery to the 
station and without mishap arrived at her rooms at 
the Bixby House, Boston. There she found a letter 
from her old friend, Willie Gambill Dubois, dated 
Old Point Comfort, inviting Marcella to visit her at 
the famed resort last named, when there would be un- 
folded an interesting tale of adventure in Japan and 
China, from whence Mr. and Mrs. Dubois had but re- 
cently returned. But Marcella did not accept her 
friend’s invitation, for she had arranged to visit Detroit 
and Toledo to see Governor Pingree and Mayor Jones, 
two public officials who were foremost in their advo- 
cacy of the rights of the people, and of their views she 
desired to learn more fully. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


TOLEDO. 

“Through the harsh noises of our day 
A low, sweet prelude finds its way; 

Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear 
A light is breaking calm and clear. 

That song of love, now low and far, 

Ere long shall swell from star to star.” 

— The Quaker Poet. 

The weather was oppressively warm when Marcella 
left Boston for the West and the journey was a tedious 
one, in no wise relieved of its monotony by the tire- 
some stretch of country through which she passed 
during the daylight hours between St. Thomas and 
Detroit. Her destination was Ann Arbor, where she 
visited relatives, and after remaining with them a few 
days to regain her strength after her journey, she went 
to Detroit to see Governor Pingree, whom she was 
especially anxious to meet. Detroit, the “City of the 
Straits,” is a wonderfully attractive city, and Mar- 
cella could not but notice the many improvements 
that had been made since her visit of ten years be- 
fore upon the occasion of Rebecca’s nuptials. In the 
handsome structure known as the Majestic, a large 
national flag designated the headquarters of Michi- 
gan’s popular governor, who was busily engaged tend- 
ing to the needs of the returning soldier boys. Mar- 
185 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


1 86 

cella only saw Governor Pingree for a short time, 
as he was making preparations to go from the scene of 
the soldiers’ returning from the Spanish war to the 
reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic at Cin- 
cinnati. 

She returned to Ann Arbor and the following Sun- 
day she went to Toledo. Upon her arrival in the 
latter city Marcella went to the residence of her 
cousin, Mr. D. J. O’Hara, where she was made wel- 
come. After a pleasant visit with her relatives it was 
suggested by Mr. O’Hara that Marcella accompany 
him to Golden Rule Park, where exercises were being 
held, and Marcella gladly embraced the opportunity 
to visit this famed park, inaugurated by Mayor Samuel 
M. Jones, for she thought the seeds of love, charity and 
kindness here sown could but bring forth good fruit, to 
the honor and glory of the Maker, to the betterment 
of the world and vastly to the credit of the originator of 
the plan. It has been wisely named, for from its speak- 
er’s stand are enunciated only such doctrines as com- 
port with the God-given rule : “Do unto others as ye 
would that they should do unto you.” Perhaps Mayor 
Jones’ desires for his fellowman are best expressed 
in the following extract from his fifth annual Christ- 
mas greeting to the employes of the Acme Sucker 
Rod Company, of which he is president : 

“Dear Friends : — Another Christmas is at hand, and 
as the season is approaching when the ‘prudent (?) 


the CRUCIAL TEST. 187 

business man takes account of stock in order to make 
a good guess at the profits of the past year, I think 
we may with a profit of a more enduring kind, take 
account of the spiritual and moral progress that 
we can attribute to the loving thought that we have 
had for others during the past twelve months. 

“Nearly 1900 years ago the angelic voices rang 
out on the midnight air of Judea’s plain, proclaim- 
ing the dawn of a new era, for which the world still 
waits, the era of ‘peace on earth, good will toward 
men.’ Are we idly waiting for the coming of this 
good time or are we helping to make it a reality? 
Nothing is plainer to me than that the mission of 
Jesus was to establish a new social order on earth, 
which He called ‘the kingdom of heaven’ and ‘the 
kingdom of God.’ Jesus never once used the ‘king- 
dom of heaven’ or the ‘kingdom of God’ as meaning 
a place, but always a condition of mind, a social 
order in which men (Christians) would love all men 
as brothers, and live and act toward them as brothers. 
He taught that men should be governed by the law 
of love instead of hate, for hate then to a much greater 
extent than now sought to rule and govern the world. 
In order to help the world to understand this new 
social order, He gave us a number of very plain and 
simple rules, which you will find written in the gos- 
pel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I particularly 
invite you to read the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


188 

Matthew, for here you will find practically all the rules 
that Jesus gave for the ordering of our lives in our 
relations with our fellow men. This portion of the 
teaching of Jesus is known as ‘The Sermon on the 
Mount,’ and I think when you read it as you read 
the sayings of any other teacher you will admit that 
it is the most revolutionary document that has ever 
come to your notice. Before the birth of the Christ, 
the law that ruled the world was truly a law of ‘blood 
and iron.’ 

‘Eye for eye, and 
Tooth for tooth; 

Hate for hate, 

And ruth for ruth/ 

“The history of the time that has come down to us 
is black with the record of hatred, bitterness, revenge 
and murder of the foulest description. Hatred and 
vengeance, in its desire to ‘get even,’ spared not the 
lives of innocent little children. If through their veins 
coursed the blood of an enemy, their doom was sealed 
as surely as though they were the offender himself. 

“But all this was to be changed. That’s why the 
dawn of the new era was heralded by the angelic song 
of ‘Peace on Earth!’ But is it here? We have just 
emerged from a cruel and bloody war in which thou- 
sands of lives were sacrificed for ‘humanity,’ it is said ; 
but is it not a little strange that 1900 years after Christ 
laid down His life to save a world from hate and to 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 1 89 

win it to love, we can find no better way to serve hu- 
manity than for the strong to kill the weak ? 

“Evidently Christ did not believe in war. If we are 
to credit His written word, He might have resorted 
to superior force to overcome His enemies, for He 
told His disciples that He could summon ‘more than 
twelve legions of angels’ to His relief. But He qui- 
etly submitted to arrest, conviction and execution, 
all the time knowing that He was guilty of no crime. 
Yet here we are, 1900 years after, still denying the 
power of love and killing people for the sake of ‘hu- 
manity !’ 

“I am with Franklin, Garrison, Tolstoi and Christ 
on the question of war. I don’t believe there was 
ever a good war or a bad peace, and for that reason 
I am ready for a perpetual Christmas now, a Christ- 
mas that shall last not twenty-four hours, or a week, 
but that shall last 365 days in the year, and all the 
years from now on, until the ‘angel shall stand with 
one foot on the sea and one on the land and declare 
that time shall be no more.’ 

“If Christ taught anything, He taught that men 
might have this perpetual Christmas whenever they 
wanted it. He said, ‘The kingdom of heqven is at 
hand,’ and again, ‘The kingdom of heaven is within 
you,’ and He taught that we might begin to live it at 
any time, merely by giving up the idea of hating 
men and giving ourselves to loving them instead. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


190 

I suppose those people who insist on waiting for some 
dim and distant millenium have the right to wait, but 
for my part I prefer to take my share now and here, 
by living as best I can according to the perpetual 
Christmas rules. The Christ whose birth we com- 
memorate, the loving, forgiving, gentle, compassion- 
ate Christ, if He were to visit this earth in His per- 
son, as some people believe that He will at His sec- 
ond coming, would find many, many things in our 
so-called civilization that I think would cause Him 
to weep, even as He wept over Jerusalem. As He 
looked on our millions of disinherited poor I fancy 
I hear Him repeating the reproach that He pro- 
nounced on the civilization of His time, when He said, 
‘The poor ye have always with you.’ Evidently they 
did not know enough to be ashamed of their paupers, 
and we are very much in the same state of mind, for 
we point with pride to the fact that we ‘take care of 
the poor.’ We have not yet learned to be ashamed 
of a civilization that makes some of our brothers 
paupers. But we have sound proof that the world is 
awakening, and before many years we shall awake 
to see a Christmas when poverty shall be banished 
from the* earth.” 

On this beautiful September afternoon, as she en- 
tered Golden Rule Park, Marcella viewed as inter- 
esting a sight as it was ever her privilege of wit- 
nessing. An audience was assembled, comfortably 


THE CRUCIAL PEST. 


191 

seated about a platform sheltered from the ardor of 
the sun by huge elms. The speaker of the afternoon, 
the Rev. A. M. Babcock, had just concluded a dis- 
course upon how to realize human equality, and this 
was followed by music and the song, “Divide Up the 
Day,” the words of which were composed by Mayor 
Jones, they being most acceptably set to music by his 
wife, who is a musician of rare talent. 

Then Mayor Jones, a man of striking personality, 
indicating firmness and strength of character, yet kind- 
ness of heart, came forward and placing his arms about 
two little children who were comfortably seated upon 
the platform railing, preached the gospel of love. He 
called the attention of the people to a thought that 
Emerson had given expression to, ‘Every man loves 
truth/ and the thought swept through Marcella that 
love of truth and humanity was an inherent sentiment 
with the vast majority of Americans. There were 
other speakers along the lines indicated, and when 
the meeting was over Marcella was made acquainted 
by her cousin with State Senator Leet, Mr. A. E. 
Macomber, Doctor Maguire and others who were 
present to testify to their faith in the doctrine of love. 
Later in the day Mr. Macomber and Doctor Maguire 
waited upon Marcella at the home of her cousin and 
invited her to speak at Golden Rule Park, which in- 
vitation, after consultation with Mr. O’Hara, she ac- 
cepted. On the following Sabbath she delivered an 


192 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


address at the park upon “The Needs of the Hour,” 
advocating the employment of the surplus labor, the 
curtailment of the liquor evil, true civil service re- 
form and just taxation. Mayor Jones was very kind 
to her and indorsed her views. 

For several months Marcella remained in Toledo, 
carrying on her observations within the field of en- 
deavor she had mapped out for herself. Among other 
things, she ascertained that the ministers of the city 
were opposed to Mayor Jones, by reason of his atti- 
tude toward the saloons, which, in effect, was that 
the saloon keeper was entitled to some consideration 
as a member of the great brotherhood of man. 

A careful canvass of the matter will demonstrate 
the fact that saloon keepers are not averse to any plan 
that will honestly curtail the liquor evil. They deplore 
the misery which the present system of legislation de- 
velops by upholding conditions which put unbearable 
burdens on the workers of the nation, causing them to 
seek relief in stimulants, and social relaxation in the 
saloons. Charles O. Boring, of Evanston, Illinois, is 
the son of the Methodist minister under whose guid- 
ance the late Frances E. Willard took up her work. 
Mr. Boring, like Bishop Potter and others whose 
hearts beat in unison for humanity, believes that it 
is but human to crave the society of your fellow man, 
and that the churches have held out so few induce- 
ments to the satisfaction of this craving that they have 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


193 


contributed to the upbuilding of the evil— the saloon— 
they so loudly decry. When one comes to look at it 
carefully and prayerfully, it is not all talk to call the 
saloon “the poor man’s club.” He too often gets 
frigid comfort at the churches, unless he is “a person of 
parts” in the community, and he goes where stronger 
fellowship is held out to allay his craving for social 
intercourse. 

Horace Fletcher, who so nobly devotes his fortune 
and his energy to the upbuilding of the kindergarten 
system, wherein the seeds of order, morality and use- 
fulness are sown among the children, says, “Sin is a 
disease that is contagious and can only be cured by 
developing the children by a proper course of train- 
ing and giving them a healthy social environment.” 
As sure as harvest follows seed-time, what is sown in 
the child’s heart society will reap. If you sow love, 
there will be a harvest of kindly thoughts and kindly 
deeds ; if you sow unkindness the harvest will be 
evil. All the laws that may be enacted by legislatures, 
though they remained in perpetual session, will not 
eradicate the evil in humanity that society has engen- 
dered.” 

When Marcella learned that Mayor Jones was will- 
ing to indorse any measure that would lessen the evil 
effects of the liquor traffic, she endeavored to find 
who were the other people in Toledo who would be 
equally interested in attaining this end. She called upon 
*3 


194 THE CRUCIAL TEST. 

Mr. Rudolph Brand, a prominent brewer, of the firm 
of Grasser & Brand, and postmaster of the city. He 
was very kind and courteous to Marcella. He admit- 
ted there were grave evils in connection with the liquor 
traffic, but they were not so much so but they might 
be amended by judicious action. He, for one, would 
be willing to do what was possible to help humanity. 
The trouble, in his judgment, was that there was too 
much theorizing and not enough effort along prac- 
tical lines. Mr. Brand was a firm believer in civil 
service and thought that its extension to all branches 
of service would be a great benefit to society. 

Mr. James E. Pilliod, president of the Toledo 
Brewing Company, also president of the Toledo 
Brewers’ Association, and an attorney of note, was 
next visited by Marcella. As Mr. Brand had done, 
he received her courteously and gave her full oppor- 
tunity to state her purpose. He desired to help hu- 
manity, to uplift it, and would put his shoulder to the 
wheel in any concerted action that gave promise of 
beneficial results that tended to lessen evil and make 
the world brighter for all. 

Marcella was assured that Mr. Dennis Coghlin 
of the Buckeye Brewing Company, and the members 
of the Findlay, the Eagle and the Maumee brewing 
companies would agree to any proposition to remedy 
existing ills growing out of the liquor traffic that was 
not a curtailment of personal freedom. She called 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


195 


upon Mr. L. Haas, president of the Toledo Liquor 
Dealers’ Association, who said he would give adhe- 
sion to any plan that would lift the load off the shoul- 
ders of the poor people. He thought Marcella’s plan 
to make conditions better by giving everyone an op- 
portunity to work at living wages, and by having the 
government purchase and control the liquor traffic, 
was right and would receive the support of the liquor 
dealers generally. 

Marcella next met Mr. James M. Bloomer, editor 
of the “Daily News.” Mr. Bloomer is a believer in 
single tax and summed up the existing situation quite 
originally, saying: “Some people mock God by say- 
ing the ‘our Father’ and praying to Him to give them 
their daily bread when they are putting in full time 
harvesting a crop of bread that will last them a thou- 
sand years. Thus a few multi-millionaires — under our 
present system of society — make it difficult for Al- 
mighty God to give their daily bread to a majority of 
His creatures.” 

Mr. Negley D. Cochran, editor of the “Toledo Bee,” 
believed that the trusts were rapidly solving the prob- 
lems of the day by compelling organization which 
would bring system out of our chaotic social and com- 
mercial relations. He believed that conditions should 
be such that everyone would have the opportunity 
to work without one person receiving work as a 
favor from another. Mr. Cochran is to be especially 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


196 

commended for his earnest efforts to develop an edu- 
cational system that would not take away from the 
child the right he inherited from his Maker, of hav- 
ing an individuality. He believed that the ultimate 
welfare and success of the nation was dependent upon 
the proper training and development of the children. 

Marcella was told that the late D. R. Locke, better 
known to the world as “Petroleum V. Nasby,” would 
have been interested in her plan to uplift humanity 
and curtail the liquor evil, and she found that the 
series of editorials written by him under the title 
of “Pulverize the Rum Power” had made a lasting 
impression upon the people of Toledo. She called 
upon his son, Mr. Robinson Locke, the present editor 
of the “Toledo Blade,” who received her most cour- 
teously and declared his willingness to embark in 
any enterprise the purpose of which was to advance 
the cause of the people, and tendered her the free use 
of the columns of his paper if she desired to make use 
of them in furtherance of her plans. 

Mr. Henry Vortreide, editor and proprietor of the 
“Express,” the German daily of Toledo, was a believer 
in the uplifting of the people and would subscribe to 
any method that promised to bring about that result. 
Mr. C. C. Packard, editor of the “Sunday Journal,” 
said his efforts were always exerted in a direction that 
would be beneficial to the people. 

Mr. Alonzo D. Fassett, editor and proprietor of the 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 197 

Critic, was formerly a resident of Youngstown 
and represented the Mahoning district in the Ohio 
Senate in 1883-85. He has been very pronounced in 
his defense of the rights of the workingman and de- 
clared his readiness to assist Marcella to the extent of 
his ability in securing justice for the wage-earners. 

Mr. Charles Reed, the editor of the “Courier,” 
is the last representative of one of Ohio’s most noted 
newspaper families. His father, Mr. Henry Reed, in 
partnership with Mr. Murat Halstead and Mr. M. B. 
Potter, edited and published the Cincinnati “Com- 
mercial.” 

One of the pleasant remembrances of Charles 
Reed’s life is a visit, when he was attending school 
outside of Cincinnati, from the talented writer, Murat 
Halstead, and this mind picture is inlaid with the 
memory of the present Mr. Halstead gave him. 

Henry Reed and his three brothers were prominent 
editors in Cincinnati, Toledo, Columbus and Cleveland. 

Mr. Reed gave courteous attention to Marcella’s 
exposition of her plans and coincided with 
most of her ideas for ameliorating the con- 
dition of the masses. He thought that no one 
in public life, or out of it, could afford to be 
oblivious to the rights of labor, for in proportion as 
these rights were infringed society was made to suf- 
fer. He was willing at all times to contribute to the 
uplifting of the people, and though there were vari- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


198 

ous problems most perplexing, he was not without 
hope of their ultimate solution and in a way that would 
be generally beneficial. 

Three ladies of Toledo whose interest and kindness 
were especially appreciated by Marcella were Mrs. N. 
B. Bacon, Dr. Mary E. Law and Mrs. Julia Rice Seney. 
Mrs. Bacon is a sister of ex-President Cleveland and 
has long been prominent in good works, though it 
has been her manifest desire to keep her own person- 
ality in the background. She is the president of the 
Young Woman’s Christian Association of Ohio and 
is sincerely interested in any work that will elevate 
humanity. 

Dr. Law was president of the Woman’s Federation 
of Clubs, a very bright woman, keenly interested in 
the cause of humanity, and devoted to the most im- 
portant work possible of performance, the formation 
of child character through the kindergarten system. 
She understood the principle upon which depends the 
redemption of the human race ; that if the seed of good- 
ness is not planted in every heart and carefully cul- 
tivated by love, all the statute laws of the land could 
not prevent a crop of nettles from springing up. 

Mrs. Seney was the superintendent of the registry 
department of the Toledo postoffice and the only 
woman occupying such a position in the country. 
She has such a charming personality that to know 
her is to feel one’s heart go out to her in kindliness. 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


199 


Her encouragement was very helpful to Marcella and 
the latter was made to feel that she had found a friend 
upon whose sound judgment she could rely with con- 
fidence. Mrs. Seney served with eminent success as the 
hostess of the Ohio building at the Chicago World’s 
Fair, and is in charge of the Business Woman’s De- 
partment of the Ohio Centennial, to be held in Toledo 
in 1902. She is a sister of Gen. A. V. Rice of Colum- 
bus, a distinguished veteran of the Civil War, who 
now holds a prominent position with the census bu- 
reau and is esteemed of all who know him. It may 
be justly said that Toledo has no woman more popu- 
lar with all classes than Mrs. Seney. 

Marcella was painstaking in her efforts to ascertain 
the prevailing sentiment. She saw Messrs. Judd 
Richardson and John B. Merrill, police commission- 
ers, and found them willing to indorse a plan that 
would curtail the liquor evil and help humanity. 

Mr. James M. Brown, a prominent attorney of To- 
ledo, and one of the foremost orators of Ohio, was very 
kind to her. He had been a former postmaster of the 
city and the excellence of his administration had been 
such as to cause him to be prominently mentioned in 
connection with the position of first assistant postmas- 
ter-general. Mr. Brown is deeply interested in fur- 
thering the cause of humanity, and is chairman of the 
sub-executive committee of the American Humane 
Society. He stated his willingness to do anything 


200 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


in his power to advance any practical work that would 
improve conditions for the people. 

Rev. Father O’Connell of St. Francis de Sales 
Church, who commands the respect of the people of 
Toledo by reason of his high intellectual endowments 
and his earnest efforts to uplift his fellow men, was 
both courteous and encouraging to Marcella, and of 
the Rev. Dr. J. S. Montgomery of St. Paul’s M. E. 
Church the same may be said. The latter, since re- 
moved to Minneapolis, preached a most eloquent fare- 
well sermon on “Hope,” which showed boundless love 
for his fellow man. To Marcella he showed a kindly 
interest in her plans to employ the surplus labor, cur- 
tail the liquor evil and establish honest government. 

President Brown of the Young Men’s Christian As- 
sociation said he would be glad to have a practical 
plan to curtail the liquor evil, such as Marcella pro- 
posed, brought to a successful issue. 

Mr. James Varley, an active member of the Order of 
Odd Fellows, and his wife, who is deeply interested 
in the work of the Daughters of Rebecca, were kind 
friends to Marcella. Mr. Varley, who was one of the 
most industrious and intelligent of the workingmen of 
Toledo, agreed with her, that it was desirable to carry 
out a plan which, while securing to the workingman a 
just return for his labor, would not cause chaotic con- 
ditions, or injure those who were rich. 

Mr. W. W. Chalmers, superintendent of the public 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


201 


schools, displayed the broadest views on educational 
matters, and was interested in a plan that would give 
every child a fair opportunity and lessen the burdens 
of the parents and teachers who care for the develop- 
ment of the children of the nation. 

While in Toledo Marcella had the good fortune to 
renew her acquaintance with Senator Foraker, who, 
thanks to a mutual friend, Mr. C. D. Firestone of 
Columbus, she had first met in Des Moines, when the 
senator spoke in the capital of Iowa in the interest of 
the election of Governor Jackson. She .had no diffi- 
culty in recalling herself to his memory. 

The senator was very courteous to Marcella, but, 
being pressed by demands upon his time from others, 
he asked her to write to him at Cincinnati, when he 
would have a better opportunity to consider her propo- 
sition. This she did, and in due course received a re- 
ply, in which the senator said that he was earnestly in- 
terested in the success of any work honestly under- 
taken to improve conditions and elevate humanity. 


CHAPTER XV. 


LOUISVILLE. 

“God, give us men! A time like this demands 
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands; 
Men who possess opinions and a will, 

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog 
In public duty and in private thinking. 

Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps. 

God, give us men!” 

— Our Dumb Animals, April, 1899. 

As the close of the nineteenth century approached a 
party of old friends, friends in all the heart rela- 
tionships that the term implies, had met to spend 
Christmas, 1899, at the Galt House in Louisville, Ky. 
The Blue Grass metropolis is an attractive city and 
takes rank with Washington and Detroit as among the 
most beautiful. It is the “gateway” to the South and 
a commercial emporium of great magnitude. 

George Dubois and his charming wife, Willie, were 
host and hostess upon this joyous occasion. George 
found it necessary to visit Louisville upon business 
and he had been accompanied by his wife, who had 
been an inseparable companion in all his travels. At 
their earnest invitation Marcella, Elbert and Rebecca 
Foster and their children, Catharine, Nicholas and Lin- 
^ coin, and Ralph Lower had joined them, and in a pri- 
vate parlor of the Galt House they were assembled to 
202 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 20 $ 

spend Christmas Eve, the festivities they had arranged 
to extend throughout the holiday week. 

The children had gone to bed, after enjoying the 
beautiful Christmas tree that Willie had prepared for 
them, and their elders were drawing together to com- 
pare notes of the varied experiences that had hap- 
pened to each in the time that had elapsed since they 
had all been together. Marcella and Ralph had not 
yet joined the group and were talking earnestly to- 
gether, Ralph urgently and Marcella in a manner to 
indicate that she did not fully agree with all he said. 
We may be permitted to know the subject of their con- 
versation, since we are so interested in the welfare of 
both. As the reader will have imagined, Ralph long 
since developed a strong affection for the earnest 
little woman who had shown a willingness to sacri- 
fice her comfort and, if need be, herself, in the cause of 
others, and he desired to shift her burdens to his 
broader shoulders. His zeal in seconding her efforts 
had awakened a reciprocal feeling in her heart, but 
until her plan of amelioration had been more fully 
launched she was reluctant to divide responsibility. 
She wanted to work on alone, and Ralph was seeking 
to persuade her that jointly they could work to better 
advantage, he at hand to encourage and support her 
when shadows would obtrude. This was not a new 
subject with them. They had been over it before many 
times. We may give Ralph credit for rare forensic 


204 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


powers, for he had caused Marcella to waver in her 
determination, and when they joined the others it was 
understood between them that their wedding should 
not be long deferred, though Marcella would not 
listen to fixing a date until she had had time to “think 
it over” by herself. 

George and Elbert were talking of trusts and the evil 
effects of overcapitalization by these organizations, and 
they agreed that unless measures were taken by those 
in authority to hold these corporations to a strict 
accountability before the law, there would come a re- 
action compared with which the “South Sea Bubble” 
in England, and Law’s Mississippi scheme in France, 
would be as nothing. 

“The powers accorded the great ice company, so- 
called, of Messrs. Elkins, Widener, Ryan & Whitney, 
by the laws of New Jersey, are a verification of the 
saying, ‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make 
mad,’ ” remarked George. “The franchise secured bv 
them is greater than that awarded the Credit Mobilier 
by the state of Pennsylvania, which was the direct 
cause of the crisis of 1877, the evil effects of which 
were palliated by a failure of the serial crops abroad, 
which, of course, caused enormous shipments of grain 
from this country, and relieved the pressure. In sec- 
tion three of the charter of the ice company referred to 
this wonderful octopus is empowered to do almost 
everything imaginable under the shining sun. It may 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


205 


deal in ice plants, refrigerators and cold storage ware- 
houses, electric plants and steam plants, in natural and 
artificial ice in all its forms, in electricity for heat, light 
and power; it may produce, sell and supply heat and 
power ; it may buy, sell, manufacture, acquire and dis- 
pose of vessels, machines, vehicles, equipments, ma- 
terials, merchandise and supplies appertaining to any 
of its business objects, and carry on any other lawful 
business in which it may choose to engage. Now, if 
I may be permitted to ask, how is that for comprehen- 
sive? 

“The trust system, which has put a pressure on all 
classes of business very naturally excites fear of col- 
lapse, such as always follows the overcapitalization of 
business by centralized interests. In an interview with 
Mr. Gompers, on Thanksgiving Day, 1898, President 
McKinley sounded the keynote of wisdom when he 
said: ‘It is the duty of every person, whether in public 
life or out of it, to endeavor to solve the labor prob- 
lem.’ 

“The American people, with good judgment, de- 
cided, in 1896, that William McKinley could be safely 
trusted with the reins of government. In public life 
for thirty years no man more conscientiously, with 
greater dignity or with fewer mistakes upheld the in- 
terests committed to his charge. 

“Instead of serving as useless ‘drags upon the 
wheels of progress, instead of making life miserable 


206 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


for ourselves and those about us by unjustifiable fault- 
finding, let us remember that ‘whatever is, is right.’ 
Let us learn wisdom by our mistakes, and, actuated by 
a spirit of patriotism, stand by those in authority who 
are trying conscientiously to administer the affairs 
of government for us. Let each American bear his 
just share of the ‘White Man’s Burden’ and assist the 
chief executive by every effort in his power, to give to 
every individual protected by the stars and stripes a 
fair opportunity to become a worthy representative of 
his God. 

“Let the United States go before the world with the 
declaration that henceforth she will abstain from war 
and will not extend her boundaries as a result of armed 
conflict, but, in case she is compelled to draw th,e 
sword in defense of her integrity, that she will compel 
from her antagonist a money indemnity that will serve 
as an object lesson to those who cultivate the martial 
spirit. All will agree that there is merit in the follow- 
ing argument of Rossiter Johnson to prevent war, 
taken from the holiday number of the ‘Overland 
Monthly’ for 1898-99: 

“ ‘The great thing is to give notice to every nation 
that if it insists upon war, and is unsuccessful in the 
contest, it will be compelled to pay the heaviest cash 
indemnity that it can possibly bear — will be bank- 
rupted, in fact. Young manhood is rash, but middle- 
aged capital is timid; indeed, the financial proverb 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


207 


tells us that all capital is timid. Thus Artemus Ward 
said he was willing to sacrifice all his wife's relations 
for the good of the country. He did not add that he 
was willing to sacrifice his own private fortune. Those 
who lend money to governments to carry on war would 
not be so ready to do it if they knew that in case of 
defeat the debt would have to be repudiated or scaled 
down. 

“ ‘Perhaps you think this idea is fantastic, but I am 
not without a good historical example to strengthen 
my argument. When the Franco-German war was 
finished, nearly thirty years ago, Germany not only 
took away Alsace and Lorraine, but exacted a cash 
indemnity of a thousand million dollars, which France 
had to pay. Mutterings of revenge and predictions of 
another war were plentiful, but it is noticeable that no 
renewal of the contest has been attempted. France 
may have forgotten her sons who fell at Forbach, 
Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte, and might be willing to 
sacrifice as many more, but she has not forgotten her 
thousand million dollars, and she will not be in a hurry 
to risk a similar fortune. When the Germans loaded 
that money into wagons and carted it across the 
Rhine, they offered the world a most valuable lesson — 
if it would but read it.’ 

“To take a long step forward in the march of prog- 
ress, the people must concentrate their intelligence 
upon the problems confronting them — not in a parti- 


208 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


san spirit, but as though it were a personal matter, as 
if it were a private affair, giving to it the same careful 
judgment. By forming a great national trust,, to be 
administered by the government, with honesty as the 
foundation and merit the cement that is to bind it into 
one harmonious whole, the American people can se- 
cure for themselves and those who come after them 
that measure of prosperity and stability conceived of 
by the founders of the republic.” 

“I sincerely hope the burdens of society will be 
more fairly adjusted,” said Willie. “Everyone must 
work out his debt to society, but no one can stand the 
strain of working out his own debt and the debts of 
the drones who contribute nothing to the general wel- 
fare, and if, when a. measure of prosperity comes to 
us as a nation, the non-workers are permitted through 
watered stocks to absorb the resources of the people, 
who will wonder if it brings on a feeling of unrest that 
threatens the stability of our institutions? When one 
considers the burdens monopolies and trusts put upon 
the people, the wonder is that they are so law-abiding.” 

“We must remember,” said Marcella, “the declara- 
tion of Andrew Jackson, one of the nation’s strongest 
defenders, that ‘In union there is strength,’ and organ- 
ize on a basis whereupon everyone will stand or fall, 
according to his merits. Then no one will have cause 
to complain of unfair conditions, and the fraternal in- 
stinct that is within us all will develop into a brother- 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 20g 

hood of man that will uplift the nation and all will be 
prepared to share in the blessings of the fatherhood of 
God. The American masses must prove themselves 
worthy upholders of free government by being brave 
and fearless and by being upon perpetual guard for the 
rescue of suffering humanity from the tyranny of cor- 
porations, monopolies and trusts. Stephen Decatur 
set us an example less than a century ago, by dictat- 
ing terms to the Dey of Algiers, which gave courage 
to Europe to rescue herself from the debasing posi- 
tion of paying tribute to the pirates of Northern 
Africa for the protection of her commerce. Let Ameri- 
can freemen prove themselves worthy of the great 
achievements of their forefathers by refusing to pay 
tribute to the trusts, which are the pirates of our day, 
but in their hour of victory let them not be unmindful 
of the voice of humanity and deal fairly even by those 
who have been their enemies and have sought their en- 
slavement.” 

“Marcella is right,” said George. “The key to the 
situation is a national trust, based on the wishes of the 
people, as expressed by a strong organization of farm- 
ers, workingmen, business and professional men, such 
organization having its initiative in the townships and 
wards, to do effective work at the primaries to ensure 
honest conditions. This will result in amendatory ac- 
tion that will insure to the tiller of the soil fair com- 
pensation for his efforts, to the wage-earner employ- 

14 


210 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


ment commensurate with his needs and at living 
wages, and to the professional man a fair demand for 
his services along the lines that are inseparable from 
our daily life. All will be safely equipped for the duties 
imposed by citizenship and all will receive their just 
recompense for labor performed. All will not only be 
entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but 
will be accorded their just deserts in pursuit of the 
same. Only when we lighten the weight of those 
whom society has burdened so heavily will we have 
proved ourselves worthy citizens of the great republic. 

F. T. Gordan’s tribute “To the Men Who Heaved 
Coal on the Raleigh,” printed in the New York Sun, 
April 17, 1899, shows how easy it is for the “Man be- 
hind the gun” to obtain credit, while the efforts of 
those who do the hardest and most important work in 
the accomplishment of great achievements are over- 
looked arid unrewarded by those who desire to show 
appreciation.” 

“The people must not rely on the bosses or machine 
politicians,” said Marcella. “It was to them Washing- 
ton referred when he said in his farewell address : 
‘They open the door to foreign influence and corrup- 
tion, which will find a facilitated access to our govern- 
ment through the channels of party passion. Thus the 
policy and the will of our country may become sub- 
jected to the policy and will of another.’ The people 
must realize that no man or set of men susceptible to 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


21 1 


manipulation for partisan ends can secure to them 
their rights. The people must organize for their own 
defense, they must take matters into their own hands, 
and stand for a policy that will insure honest 
conditions and support men whose hearts throb for 
humanity, as did Lincoln’s. They must be assured of 
the rectitude of those whom they elevate to places of 
trust ; otherwise they are forging weapons against 
themselves. No man who assumes to be a political 
leader should be accepted unless he proves himself a 
man of the people and for the people, a friend of hu- 
manity — not in word alone, but in deed — and a firm 
exponent of the doctrine on which our government is 
based, that every American citizen is entitled to the 
opportunity to become a useful member of society. If 
we do not act judiciously and take intelligent measures 
to form a national organization to honestly promote 
the interests of humanity and reform the primaries, the 
sin of omission will be ours and such grave results as 
ensue from our neglect must be visited upon us. We 
should organize while there is opportunity to do so. 
The trusts do not procrastinate. They take time by 
the forelock ; and this we must do, else, by the centrali- 
zation of wealth and power, they will extend the reign 
of serfdom, every day becoming more apparent in our 
midst. The constitution is the legal law of the land, 
but in adjusting conditions to the outgrowth of rapid 
development, improved mechanical appliances and 


212 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


maintenance of the principles of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, the court of last resort is the will of the 
people. The people are paramount, or should be so. 
If it is otherwise, it is because they will it so by their 
indifference, and so willing it, all national crimes, of 
whatever nature, are properly chargeable to their 
apathy. They must awaken from the lethargy that 
has involved their powers and made them as clay in 
the hands of the political potters. They must solve 
their own problems, for the only equitable solution is 
with themselves. ‘We live in thoughts, not breaths; 
in deeds, not years; in feelings, not in figures on the 
dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most 
lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.’ 
Love of God, which is evinced by love of man, should 
be the aim of every normal life. When we all, as we 
all must, sooner or later, take up our residence in 

“That beautiful city, laid out in walks and squares, 
Whose flowers in rich profusion perfume the summer air, 
Where the willow waveth and the violets lift their heads — 
The City of the Dead/’ 

“Only such deeds as have demonstrated our love 
for God and our fellow men will survive us. If we 
have breathed a word of comfort into the ears of the 
sore of heart ; if we have poured balm into the wounds 
of the stricken ; if by word or deed we have lightened 
the load of a weary brother ; if we have sought to lift 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 21 3 

tip the fallen and bid them hope, we will have done our 
part, and who will doubt but we will have commended 
our souls to the God who reigns over all? When the 
people come to realize their own strength for the right 
and know that by cohesive effort they can right the 
wrongs that are so apparent, they will have passed the 
crucial test and will be on the right road to earthly 
regeneration. On the other hand, by a continued fail- 
ure in our duty in maintaining the fundamental prin- 
ciple of government, ‘equal rights for all,’ we endanger 
the fabric that our forefathers reared at the expense 
of so much blood and suffering, and the expenditure 
of vast treasure. Lincoln said : ‘Kill me, but maintain 
the principles of the Declaration of Independence, 
which gives hope to the down-trodden of the world, 
that in time the weights will be lifted.’ ” 

“Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase) 

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 

And saw, within the moonlight in his room, 

Making it rich, like a lily in bloom, 

An angel writing in a book of gold. 

Exceeding peace has made Ben Adhem bold, 

And to the presence in the room he said — 

‘What writest thou?’ The vision raised its head, 

And with a look made of all sweet accord, 

Answered, ‘The names of those who love the Lord.’ 

‘And is mine one?’ said Abou. ‘Nay, not so,’ 

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 


214 


THE CRUCIAL TEST. 


But cheerily still, and said, ‘I pray thee, then, 
Write me as one that loves his fellow men.’ 

The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 
It came again with a great awakening light, 

And showed the names whom love of God had blest, 
And lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.” 

— Leigh Hunt 


The following address was prepared for the confer- 
ence of the Chicago Civic Federation, held in Chicago 
September 13 to 16, 1899. Our generation believes 
that every citizen is responsible according to his ability 
for all defects in our political system. We believe in an 
honest policy that will give every American a fair op- 
portunity to live, and that this end can be attained by 
forming an organization which will do effective work 
at the primaries to insure the success of national meas- 
ures in 1900, that will be directly beneficial to every 
American. 


THE VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERA- 
TION ON THE SOLUTION OF THE 
QUESTIONS CONFRONTING US. 

“Swing outward ye gates of the morn, 

Swing inward ye doors of the past; 

A giant is arousing from slumber, 

The people are awakening at last.” 

Oppressive conditions similar to those which called 
into existence the Continental Congress, which pro- 
mulgated the great principles of Liberty, have caused 
the Chicago Civic Federation to call this conference of 
rulers and influential men from each state of the great- 
est federation which has ever existed. 

215 


216 views of the present generation. 

History tells us that centralization of wealth, power 
and greed for gold, which is to-day represented more 
strongly than ever before in the world by the trust 
system of the United States, has caused the downfall of 
powerful republics and empires. 

Only one people who have attempted oppressive des- 
potic measures toward their fellow men have survived 
as a great power — the strong-nerved, shrewd, calculat- 
ing Briton — because the equipoise of the English na- 
tion is balanced by a people who will never willingly 
surrender their rights. The Chicago Tribune, in an 
article reviewing the progress of liberty during the 
present century says “that two events in the eighteenth 
century paved the way for the remarkable develop- 
ment of democracy in the nineteenth century and the 
increase in the rights of the people, which historians 
consider the most characteristic feature of the era. 
Had it not been for the increased political and per- 
sonal liberty many of the greatest men in science, in- 
dustry, art and every field of effort would have lacked 
opportunity for their work. Oppressed by their mas- 
ters, they would have been unable to devote their 
brains to the great achievements that have written 
their names upon the roll of fame. The two events that 
made possible the present development of civilization 
were the American and the French revolutions.” The 
generation of to-day, the men and women who have 
grown up since our last terrible crisis, the Civil War, 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 2 Ij 

find that we have questions confronting us on the solu- 
tion of which depend our own welfare and the happi- 
ness of our children and the progress of liberty during 
the twentieth century. 

We cannot endure the strain of competing for wages 
with tireless machinery. While desiring the advan- 
tages of improved methods, we wish to lessen the ten- 
sion of our rapid development and tune the civilization 
of our times to the music of truth, love, peace and 
harmony. The condition of centralization, which our 
fathers’ love for money has caused, puts upon us such 
a strain that the nervous systems of those of our gen- 
eration are being shattered. We came forward to take 
our various positions on the field in the battle of life, 
while the last great boom was occurring in this coun- 
try. The prosperity caused by the Civil War enabled 
our parents to give us every care, but as we grew up 
the dark conditions which we are facing were fore- 
shadowed by the panics of ’73, ’77 and ’85. Our lives 
have been darkened by the reaction from the great 
boom, which occurred from ’86 to ’89, when English 
syndicates were investing enormous sums in our secur- 
ities. When English money was coming in, our coun- 
try was very prosperous ; when the revenues com- 
menced to recede to England and Barring & Co. drew 
all the gold they could from here to brace up their 
position, we realized with full force the exasperation 
of the present capitalistic system, which permitted the 


218 views of the present generation. 

poor judgment of money lenders to bring a financial 
crisis like that of ’93 on our nation. 

We are endeavoring to find out who is responsible 
for building barriers which shut us out from success in 
life. We feel that our position is like that of Admiral 
Dewey’s, whose brother Charles came to thank 
Governor Roosevelt for giving his brother the oppor- 
tunity to win the Battle of Manila Bay, saying that if 
Colonel Roosevelt, as assistant secretary of the navy, 
had not used his influence to give Admiral Dewey 
command of the Asiatic squadron, his brother could 
not have won the victory. Mr. Charles Dewey said 
“without the opportunity we cannot win success.” 

The generation which preceded us has monopolized 
all resources and put burdens on us which prevent us 
from performing our missions in life, but we have all 
the energy of high-strung Americans, and we are de- 
termined to do our part to carry progress and civiliza- 
tion forward in deeds that will react beneficially to our 
children and oppressed humanity. Our hearts desire 
to loyally perform the duty we owe our nation’s great 
savior. As Lincoln raised the flag above Indepen- 
dence Hall on Washington’s birthday, 1861, he said: 
“If this nation can be saved and the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence can be maintained, which 
give hope to the downtrodden of the world that in time 
the weights will be lifted, I will be one of the happiest 
of men. Rather than that these principles should die 
I would prefer to be assassinated on this spot.” 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 21$ 

Though we desire to have the opportunity to main- 
tain liberty, which our ancestors purchased for us by 
the highest price ever paid in blood and treasure, to 
attain this end we have not turned to the theories of 
populism, socialism, the initiative and referendum, or 
to any foreign ideas. We believe in Americanism and 
that it was our forefathers who convened in delibera- 
tive assembly in the Continental Congress, as you are 
convened here, to take measures to oppose the oppres- 
sion of capitalism, who gave the great impetus to lib- 
erty through the principles of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, which started the momentum the force 
of which this conference of the Chicago Civic Federa- 
tion can increase so that all whom the stars and stripes 
shelter will be secured in the rights of life, liberty and 
pursuit of happiness. The rapid development of our 
great commercial epoch, which the conditions of the 
Civil War inaugurated, has put such a strain upon all 
classes that we feel that it is time to be prepared to take 
measures to prevent the culmination of the disaster 
Lincoln foresaw when he said “I see in the near future 
a crisis approaching which unnerves me and causes me 
to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of 
the war corporations have been enthroned, an era of 
corruption in high places will follow. The money power 
will attempt to prolong its reign by working on the 
prejudices of the people, all the wealth will be aggre- 
gated in a few hands and the republic will be de- 


220 VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 

stroyed.” With love and reverence we have turned for 
guidance to humanity’s greatest advocate. In 1858 
Lincoln said, “They say to-day the black man is not 
entitled to liberty, but our chart of liberty says every 
man, every representative of his Creator, is entitled to 
life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. If they are al- 
lowed to maintain to-day that the black man is not en- 
titled to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, in a few 
years they may say only the rich man is entitled to 
these rights. We have lost our way ; we must go back 
to the Declaration of Independence and drink at the 
fountain of liberty, near which flowed the blood of our 
revolutionary fathers, then when those who come after 
us find themselves in trouble they must follow our ex- 
ample.” We feel that our generation is facing the 
condition when the effect is the same as though only 
the rich man was entitled to life, liberty and pursuit, 
of happiness. Humbly we went back to drink at 
the fountain of liberty to obtain inspiration. We found 
that our ancestors who declared liberty for us as- 
sembled in deliberative council in the Continental Con- 
gress to bring wisdom and justice to oppose the un- 
just measures of capitalism, as represented by King 
George, as to-day this conference of the Chicago Civic 
Federation has assembled to bring intelligence to bear 
to solve the oppressive stand of capitalism as repre- 
sented in our day by the trusts, who organize to levy 
the highest possible tribute on all commodities. 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT generation. 


221 


We believe in referring to the assembling of this 
conference that Rev. Lyman Abbott struck the key- 
note of the sentiment of the American people when he 
said: “To bring light, not heat, to bear on the great 
questions confronting us. That we must learn how to 
secure the advantages of combination without destroy- 
ing the individual, to maintain brotherhood in practical 
forms without sinking, obscuring or belittling person- 
ality.” Our generation pleads to be heard in this con- 
ference, as on us will fall largely the responsibility of 
carrying out any policies which may be projected. 
The fact that our children will feel even more than we 
do the effects of wise or unwise methods causes the 
question to be more vital to us. 

Just as our fathers were anxious that the question 
of slavery should be solved in the interests of liberty, 
so we of to-day are desirous that our government 
should be so adjusted that the unjust weights will be 
lifted from all who are oppressed. We do not wish to 
tear down what others have exerted their energies to 
construct. As a representative government we are 
responsible for all present obligations, and we are will- 
ing to fulfill all the duties which the wise or unwise 
legislation of our representatives has placed upon us, 
but in the future we desire policies that will not oppress 
any American. 

We consider war as barbarous as our fathers thought 
dueling was, the only difference being that dueling was 


222 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 


a barbarity between individuals, which is injurious to 
character, and war is a barbarity between a collection 
of individuals, which is debasing to nations. We would 
use all resources to finish up the war in the Philippines 
in the shortest possible time. Then with loving kind- 
ness and justice we would give the Filipinos a wise 
government, under which they could at once develop 
their full capacity to be whatever God intended they 
should be. In the future we would avoid war by an- 
nouncing that in case of a successful war our govern- 
ment would never again acquire territory, but will ex- 
act the highest cash indemnity possible for the de- 
feated nation to pay, and the ruler of a monarchial 
government will never again go to war with the great 
republic. 

We desire that the trust question should be settled 
so fairly that no individual interest will be injured. We 
believe this result can be accomplished by applying 
the lesson in organization and system which Mr. 
Rockefeller has thought us, that the solution of the 
question is a national trust based on the plan which 
Mr. William Dean Howells suggests as the only solu- 
tion of the trust problem, the assumption by the 
government of all business which become monopo- 
lies. We believe a trust should be formed by the peo- 
ple to buy at the stock market quotation prices of 
January I, 1899, the land and all products stored in 
Mother Earth for the use of her children, the railroads, 


VIEWS OF THE FRESENT GENERATION. 223 

the telegraph system, and the food supply, as pure 
and nutritious food palatably cooked is necessary for 
our systems to enable us to perform the work God 
sent us into the world to accomplish. 

As full value would be paid for all property pur- 
chased an adjustment of this kind would be fair to 
every individual. When the government controlled 
the land and every worker was employed at iiving 
wages, humanity would not be pressed down with the 
terrible tenement house blight. Purchasing the food 
supply would bring the liquor business directly under 
government control. While we cannot force people 
not to drink, we could influence all to be temperate. 
Our nervous systems are so overtaxed by our high 
pressure civilization, that the nerves cannot perform 
the duty of controlling the machinery of our systems, 
which balances our actions. This is probably the rea- 
son that Americans are inclined to carry every ten- 
dency to excess. The editor of the Chicago Tribune 
aptly says : “A poem entitled ‘The Man With the 
Nerves’ would be a better description of the burdens 
under which the American people labor than ‘The 
Man With the Hoe.’ ” Present legislation forces the 
demand for liquor by putting the largest part of taxa- 
tion on the business, and the dealer is obliged to force 
the sale to meet this obligation. 

A national eight-hour work day and a minimum wage 
scale of a dollar and a half would solve the labor ques- 


224 VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 

tion, as all business would have to be regulated on this 
basis. 

The government owning the land would keep the 
highways in perfect order, which would solve the 
good roads problem and the question of employment 
of surplus labor. Controlling the food distribution, the 
government would regulate the price of produce, so 
that the farmer would receive just remuneration, 
which would give him the comforts of life to which his 
labor entitles him. The money to carry out this pro- 
ject could be issued by the government, redeemable at 
certain periods in gold. The money which would be 
issued to purchase whatever was necessary for the wel- 
fare of the people would be better than the money 
Hamilton struck out of the rocks of the national and 
state debts, when the nation was formed. As a security 
this money would be stronger than our bonds are a: 
present, as it would represent two values, the property 
purchased and the power of the people to redeem the 
money in gold by just taxation. The national bank- 
ing system would realize on its securities and go out of 
existence, and the government would issue the medium 
of exchange, which would be wisely balanced, accord- 
ing to the needs of the people, by the Treasury in 
Washington. That we are a nation of gamblers, who 
are worn out with the nervous strain, which the uncer- 
tainty of all conditions causes, is due to the fact that 
Hamilton founded our monetary system on the gamb- 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 225 


ling scheme, by which John Law manipulated the 
worthless paper with which Louis XIV had flooded 
France. To assist and to oppose the centralization of 
wealth, changes have been made in our banking meth- 
ods, but no remedy has been applied to the defect in 
the system which has developed so strongly the gamb- 
ling trait in the American people. 

We feel like Garfield, who told Senator Depew that 
he would gladly have exchanged the possibilities of his 
life for the certainty of a position as a successful 
teacher. We are reasonable beings. We do not care 
to be presidents, governors or prominent people. We 
desire to be happy American citizens, performing the 
work, whether it is humble or great, which our Creator 
brought us forth to accomplish. “So that the govern- 
ment of the people for the people by the people shall 
not perish from the earth.” We believe the American 
association to adjust, maintain and perpetuate Ameri- 
can institutions should be organized in the wards and 
the townships to secure for every American the rights 
of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. If a man has 
not work at living wages he cannot be happy, so the 
Declaration of Independence may be said to entitle 
every American to work at living wages and to a 
government under which he can enjoy this right. 

As the security of society depends on the prosperity 
of the masses, it is to the personal interest of every 
individual to join the American association. If all the 



226 VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 

farmers, workingmen, business men and professional 
men joined this association, and each member paid 
one dollar and a half, fifty cents from each member 
would give a large sum to pay the expenses of organ- 
izing. To secure national legislation, which in 1900 
would give every American the opportunity to have 
eight hours work a day at living wages, one dollar from 
each member of the American association would be 
used for a campaign fund. In this way a fund would be 
easily raised to secure the rights of humanity, which 
would be equal to any corruption fund possible to raise 
by a national committee for interested parties of class 
legislation. The receipts and expenditures of the 
American association would be published. The names 
of all members would be filed in each ward and town- 
ship. All would have the opportunity to know how 
matters stood. A system would be adopted which 
would prevent dishonesty or selfishness. The Ameri- 
can association would form a social clearing-house for 
every individual or organization which tended to help 
humanity. Everyone who required advice or assist- 
ance would go to this organization, which would exert 
every possible effort to put everyone in position to per- 
form his duty and work out his destiny. 

The association of each ward and township would 
be cleared through county and municipal associations, 
which would be cleared by a national association, that 
would be in touch by long-distance telephone connec- 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 227 

tion with every branch of the organization in the wards 
and townships. In this way every effort to assist hu- 
manity would be utilized to the same advantage that 
money is used by the clearing-houses of the banking 
system, which use three dollars and seventy-five cents 
to carry on transactions that required a hundred dol- 
lars before the clearing-houses were organized. 

In a report about what the Chicago Civic Federa- 
tion has accomplished, in speaking about the work of 
the political committee, attention is called to the im- 
portance of the primaries. Mr. Easley says: “There 
will be no more primaries held in this city in 1899, but 
early next winter will begin the political agitation and 
organization for the primaries that will affect, for weal 
or woe, every political interest the people can have, 
whether municipal, county, state, congressional or na- 
tional. If the advocates of reform want to be heard 
anywhere in 1900, it must be at their party primaries, 
for while independent parties can sometimes effect re- 
sults in ‘off’ years, their most enthusiastic adherents 
can hope for nothing in a presidential year. The one 
great work of the political committee of the Civic Fed- 
eration for the coming year, in my opinion, is to or- 
ganize the voters for practical work in their respective 
party primaries in the campaign of 1900.” 

If the Chicago Civic Federation would encourage 
the formation of the American association, which 
would project a policy the success of which would 


228 VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 

solve the trust problem, and insure such conditions that 
by 1900, without the interest of any individual being 
injured, every American would have the opportunity 
to have eight hours work a day at living wages, every 
voter would have an incentive to be personally inter- 
ested in the primaries. When we had secured a fair 
opportunity to live, the American association would 
form reading rooms and club rooms, in all the wards 
and townships, to take the place of saloons. We are 
social beings, who crave each other’s society ; political 
dishonesty and indifference to the rights of humanity 
by our fathers have caused the masses to be dependent 
for social relaxation on the saloons. Greed for money 
has caused a condition of immorality, which injures all 
classes of our people, and verifies the saying that 
money is the root of all evil. We desire to save our 
children from this contamination. To those who say 
it is not possible to attain this end, we reply that we 
have to bear the burden of living and taking care of 
the children of the coming generation. That the con- 
ditions we desire which would give every American a 
fair opportunity to live, would be attained with much 
less exertion than was the freedom of the negro, and 
every measure will be taken to avoid unpleasant ef- 
fects. To free the slaves we sacrificed six hundred 
thousand lives, and sunk an amount of wealth that 
would have purchased every slave at its highest mar- 
ket price, and all the developed wealth of the country. 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 229 

Though we were then only a nation of thirty-five mil- 
lions, who had bankrupted the wealthiest section of 
our country and continued to rob the southern peo- 
ple with carpet bag governors, we would have all this 
debt, with the interest, paid long ago, if the money 
power would have allowed us to do so, besides paying 
one hundred and fifty millions a year in pensions. If 
we could shed our blood and spend our treasure to 
relieve humanity in Cuba, we can adopt measures to 
lift up humanity in the United States. In the slums of 
our cities representatives of a Superior Being are 
more degraded than any other people have ever been 
before in this world. 

We find that our fathers dethroned King Cotton, 
who was enthroned on the altar of slavery, and en- 
throned money on the altar of success, and that King 
Money is despotic, tyrannical and oppressive to the 
American masses. While we are willing to be 
just and bear the burden of protecting the interests of 
every individual, we desire to give every American an 
opportunity to be a worthy representative of his Crea- 
tor. We are determined to dethrone King Money, 
and enthrone humanity on the altar of honesty. The 
conditions which the Civil War and the development 
of the West caused gave the generation preceding us 
the opportunity to have success ; and the greed for 
gold of this generation has put a more galling slavery 


230 VIEWS OP THE PRESENT GENERATION. 

on us than was endured by the negro. We intend to 
assert our rights and secure liberty, to have the oppor- 
tunity to develop the ability, with which we are en- 
dowed. We inherit our religion from Jerusalem, our 
philosophy from Greece and our laws from Rome. For 
this reason our laws are oppressive and unjust to the 
masses, as the Romans legislated for the powerful 
classes. Since the fall of the Roman empire one power 
has overthrown another, only to replace one system of 
laws by others more oppressive to the masses. Our 
generation will make love for our fellow men, the key 
to our legal system. If we would have people physic- 
ally healthy, we must have proper sanitary conditions ; 
if we would have people morally good we must make 
the environment right. We desire for the coming 
generation such conditions that God will have the op- 
portunity to develop the best qualities in each of our 
children. We do not wish to enervate our children 
with care or humanity with charity, as our fathers 
have done, but we desire to make conditions such that 
each one will look to his Creator for strength from 
within, which is the only foundation upon which 
brotherhood and true individualism can be based. To 
those who would say that the plan proposed as a so- 
lution for questions confronting us cannot be worked 
out, we say : you know as little about what can be done 
as a congressman from Tennessee, who made a speech 
during the session of Congress preceding the war and 


VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 23 1 

said: “They say to-day slavery is a doomed institu- 
tion , yes, doomed to exist forever ; when Christ was on 
earth, slavery existed and Christ did not denounce 
slavery. ” It would be much easier for the people who 
conduct the affairs of our nation in 1899 to have this 
plan, which would secure every American in the rights 
to which he is entitled, carried into effect by 1905, than 
it was for the people of our nation in ’59, to emancipate 
the slave and equip three million northerners to con- 
quer six hundred thousand southerners and save the 
nation by 1865. 

Emerson told our fathers, whose entire energy was 
concentrated on the absorption of money, that the rea- 
son so little was accomplished in our world, they all 
followed the beaten track for fear if they stepped aside 
they would appear different from others, that they 
thought the work of the world was completed, while in 
reality it had hardly commenced, that our most beau- 
tiful songs had not been sung and our most beautiful 
poems had not been written. If the delegates to 
this conference of the Chicago Civic Federation will 
agree to indorse a plan which will solve the trust prob- 
lem and maintain the principles of liberty and develop 
in Americans the highest qualities, with which their 
Creator has endowed them, and thus raise our citizen- 
ship to the highest standard possible to attain, this 
conference will stand in history equal to the Conti- 
nental Congress, which drew up the Declaration of In- 


232 VIEWS OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 

dependence, to which assembly England’s great states- 
man, Lord Chatham, paid the high tribute that the 
Continental Congress displayed more wisdom than any 
other deliberative body which had ever assembled. 
Our generation, bowing in reverence to the Father- 
hood of God, and with loving affection for the Brother- 
hood of man will exert every energy, to give God the 
opportunity to come out as strongly as possible in each 
individual. 

“Only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall 
blame us, 

For no one shall work for money, and none shall work for 
fame; 

But each for the joy of the working, and each in its separate 
star 

Shall draw the thing as he sees it, for the God of the things 
as they are.” — Kipling. 




































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